Star Wars: The Mandalorian Wars
by Kolya
Summary: This story is currently on hold by author.
1. Ch 1 For the Glory of Mandalore

Author's Note: The following story takes place approximately eight years before the events of KOTOR and spans more than three years over the course of the Mandalorian Wars.

Disclaimer: All names, places, and major events belong to George Lucas and his subsidiary companies, I am merely borrowing them to flesh out my version of the story. Much thanks to George Lucas for first introducing us to that galaxy far, far away...

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Star Wars: The Madalorian Wars

ALMOST FOUR MILLENNIA BEFORE THE FALL OF THE GALACTIC REPUBLIC AND THE BIRTH OF THE GALACTIC EMPIRE, THE OLD REPUBLIC FACED ONE OF ITS GREATEST THREATS AND ONE OF ITS DARKEST HOURS.

FROM THEIR HIDDEN MILITARY BASE ON THE JUNGLE MOON DXUN, THE MANDALORIANS, A CLAN-BASED SOCIETY OF RUTHLESS WARRIORS, FOLLOWING THE WILL OF THEIR LEADER, MANDALORE THE ULTIMATE, BEGAN THEIR ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLIC, INTENT ON BRINGING ABOUT ITS ABSOLUTE DESTRUCTION IN A WAR TO END ALL WARS. THEIR FIRST TARGET WAS DXUN'S OWN PLANET, ONDERON.

BEFORE THE END OF THIS WAR, THE REPUBLIC WOULD SEE IT'S NEAR DEFEAT, AND THE JEDI, GUARDIANS OF PEACE AND JUSTICE IN THE GALAXY, WOULD SEE THE FALL OF THEIR GREATEST WARRIOR...

Chapter One: For the Glory of Mandalore

He turned his face up towards the sky and watched as the verdant world of Onderon spun lazily overhead. It didn't seem to have a care in the world, and in fact it didn't, at least not yet. Some found it disconcerting to look up and see a planet so very close in the sky that it looked as though it might fall at any moment. Mandalore the Ultimate, leader of the Mandalorian clans, found it to be intoxicating. As far as he was concerned, the planet already belonged to him, the battle that was to come was merely a formality.

The final measures were being taken; the last steps were being made. Soon, he thought to himself, very soon. It would be from here, the jungle moon of Dxun, that the Mandalorians would finally have their glory and honor. It was time for them to fight a war to end all wars, and it would all start here.

It had been here that the Mandalorians had settled after the defeat of Exar Kun at the hands of the Republic and their pet Jedi. It had been here that they rebuilt their forces after his betrayal. Forced into hiding until the time came when they could finally rise up and claim their birthright as the greatest warriors in the galaxy.

Mandalorians were originally of one species, the Taung who inhabited Coruscant before the rise of humans, a warrior race beyond the abilities of any other. Their lives were devoted to combat. They felt that the true measure of a being was tested and found in conflict and war. A being could not know who he or she truly was, they believed, until they faced down their enemy. It really didn't matter in the end to a Mandalorian whether they won or lost. It was the battle that was all important, that was the only thing that mattered. If they lost then they found honor in being bested by a superior opponent and would be stronger for it, making them even more likely to win the next time. But glory came to those who could best even the greatest combatant. To be the ultimate victor was to be immortal.

Mandalorians of the present really weren't all that different in ideology and practice. The main difference was really only the fact that Mandalorians were now no longer of one species. Over time other races had joined their ranks until, as is the case almost everywhere else in the galaxy, humans made up the dominant number. But they still held the same beliefs. War was still that which defined a Mandalorian's existence. To live in times of war was to be blessed, for each day meant a new enemy and a new battle, a new chance for glory.

This Mandalore also wasn't the first leader of the Mandalorians. Mandalore was merely the name given to each leader since Mandalore the First, savior of the Mandalorians, and the being from who their name was derived. Mandalore was always he which was held above the other Mandalorians, the greatest warrior of the great warriors. This Mandalore, however, was determined to be like no other Mandalore before him. His plans were far more ambitious and he felt he was the first Mandalore that had ever come this close to such a victory as the one he felt he would achieve.

The Mandalorians had long believed that the great Galactic Republic was on the decline. Corruption and complacency had dulled the former vibroblade of a government and now, they believe, its weakness would bring about its end at their hands. Mandalore was almost saddened by the fact that he didn't truly believe the Republic to be a worthy enemy. The only thing that would make this fight one to remember was the size. The Republic military outnumbered the Mandalorians almost ten to one, and it didn't matter to Mandalore. One of his best Mandalorians could take down fifteen Republic soldiers.

Mandalore looked around him at the jungle that seemed to have an almost persistent desire to overtake their hidden military base. One of the main reasons the Mandalorians had chosen this moon, besides the fact that this was one of the best staging grounds for an assault on the Republic, and the fact that this is where the Old Sith Empire had decided they should go, was the connection they felt to the jungle of this place. The Dxun jungles were some of the most dangerous in all the galaxy. The beasts that dwelled here the most vicious and tenacious. It was commonly believed by the top Republic xenobiologists, that you could take a cannok or drexl from Dxun and put it anywhere else, on any other planet, and before long it would dominate all the other species. Life here was a constant struggle, a constant conflict. It was a proving ground for life and it was here that the Mandalorians had honed themselves and tested themselves. Dxun's jungles were strong, and so, by having survived them, the Mandalorians too were strong.

As if cued by Mandalore's thoughts, a maalraas, an indigenous animal that was a mix somewhere between large predatory cat and reptile leapt from one of the low bushes near the base entrance where Mandalore stood and started running at full speed towards him. On other planets, most animals tended to shy away from humans and other sentient beings, keeping some distance away from them and their habitats unless they were hungry and unable to find any other prey or if they felt under attack. The animals of Dxun almost seemed to desire to attack humans, as if enacting some personal unknown vendetta against anything that walked upright and on two legs. It was because of this nature of the animals here and on the planet of Onderon that the Onderonians had, at the dawn of their civilization, built high walls around their main city of Iziz, hoping to keep themselves protected from these vicious, almost hateful beasts. The Mandalorians themselves thought this indicative of the weakness of the people of Onderon. Were they strong they would merely have found a way to conquer the beasts instead of hiding from them. It was because of this that the Mandalorians respected more the Beast Riders of Onderon.

There had been a time when in order to punish their criminals, the Onderonians had cast them outside the city walls where they would be at the mercy of the beasts of Onderon. Many fell to this harsh punishment but some eventually succeeded in forming a bond with the beasts and taming them. They became the Beast Riders and the beasts were their companions, integral members of their community. It was said that a Beast Rider could tell what his mount was thinking and that there was an unbreakable connection between beast and master.

For over three and a half centuries, the Beast Riders returned the favor the citizens of Iziz had bestowed upon them by raiding the city. They would attack the great walls on their flying drexl doing as much damage as possible and then fading back into the jungles. Hostilities continued between the two groups unabated until, finally, Queen Amanoa's daughter Princess Galia staged a kidnapping of herself by the Beast Riders' leader Lord Modon Kira. Galia intended to marry Modon's son Oron. The ceremony was almost cut short by the intervention of three Jedi: Ulic Qel-Droma, Cay Qel-Droma, and Tott Doneeta, who had come to "rescue" the princess at the order of her mother. Galia was able to make the Jedi understand and they came to an agreement to help her. Amanoa was later killed in a battle with the Jedi when she attacked them with her Dark Force powers nearly killing them. Galia then took the throne with her new King of Onderon Oron Kira. With the Onderonians and the Beast Riders now bound by their leaders, the two peoples became one. Of course hostilities still continued on some level. The Beast Riders that came to live in the city once again, seemed to loose touch with their past and became nothing more than common thugs. Mandalore believed this to be evidence of the weakening corruption of the modern Republic. It made warriors into brutes, stripping them of their nobility and honor.

Mandalore saw the maalraas make its run towards him. He didn't flinch away or cower. In what seemed like one fluid motion, he merely pulled his blaster from its holster, leveled it at the charging beast and fired. The maalraas caught the blast just over its left eye and its head swung back from the force. Two more blasts to the beast's body and its forward momentum was finally halted as the beast slumped down. The beast was dead and Mandalore was once again victorious. Of course there wasn't as much honor in taking down a maalraas as there would be in taking down a zakkeg, but since his men had not see one of the tank-like beasts in some time, it would do.

As he returned the blaster to its holster one of his men came running up to his side. It was his second in command Cassus Fett. Mandalore trusted Cassus with his life, at least as much as one Mandalorian trusted another. Mandalorians believed in brotherhood and the strength of his or her clan, but in the end, all Mandalorians knew that the only being you could truly trust was yourself.

"My Lord Mandalore!" Cassus exclaimed saluting his leader. Like any other Mandalorian, everything that Cassus did, was, or thought was for the glory of Mandalore, and by giving glory to Mandalore one gained glory for them self and their clan.

"What do you have to report Cassus?" Mandalore said sparing another glace back and the maalraas, dead and crumpled in a heap where he had dropped it. He looked back at Cassus and stared into the T-shaped visor on his helmet. All Mandalorians wore head-to-toe armor. No part of their body was exposed. This served several purposes of course. Firstly it provided the Mandalorian who wore it total protection during battle as well as from the elements. On top of this it tended to be rather menacing in appearance to most beings and made it impossible to distinguish who or what was under the armor. Of course Mandalorians had ways to tell each other apart, but to anyone else it merely appeared as if they were all the same. It didn't matter what species the wearer was...all were Mandalorian. This tended to have an intimidating effect on their opponents. Their helmet voice modulators also lent a somewhat metallic, almost robotic quality to their voices making them seem even less like living beings and more like heavily armored droids.

"All is at readiness. The men are prepared...and anxious. We merely await your leave Mandalore," Cassus said returning the gaze from his T-shaped visor to Mandalore's own.

"You have it. Tell the men to begin launch procedures, we will engage the enemy within the hour," Mandalore said looking back up into the sky at Onderon as it hung there. "Onderon will soon be ours," he said in a low voice, mostly to himself, "and then we shall take the galaxy."


	2. Ch 2 The Fall at Iziz Part I

Author's Note: Due to length, Chapter Two has been broken up into four parts beginning with this one...

Chapter Two: The Fall at Iziz

The trip from the moon Dxun to the planet of Onderon was made tremendously easier by the fact that the two galactic bodies shared an atmosphere. Sometime ago planet and moon drew close enough to share their atmosphere. Actually, Dxun could almost be considered a twin planet to Onderon if not for its slightly smaller size. It was because of this atmosphere chain that some of the beasts native to Dxun managed to make it to Onderon. The drexl, native to the jungle moon, had merely flown to Onderon through space via the atmosphere chain connecting the two.

Fifteen Basilisk War Droids rushed through the atmosphere chain on their way to Onderon followed by three Mandalorian Destroyers, two Mandalorian Dungeon ships, and two frigates. Coming around the moon to join them was a Mandalorian Capital Ship which held another sixty Basilisk War Droids in reserve. This was the extent of the Madalorian fleet, brought together by clans from all over the galaxy. It had taken them some time to construct a capital ship and they had taken great pains to keep it hidden from Onderon by keeping the system's single sun, Prael, between it and the planet.

The idea that the Mandalorians would be able to take on the Republic with such a small fleet and seemed ludicrous to even the most loyal of Mandalorians, though they would never say as much. It had honestly seemed impossible to Mandalore himself. After all, the Republic, weak as it was, still had over fifty such capital ships and hundreds of frigates and destroyers, not mention the hundreds of thousands of snubfighters making up its fleet. Were they ever to bring the full might of their Navy to bear, they would be able to crush the Mandalorians outright.

Mandalore knew this but he also knew some other things about the Republic. Because of their weakness bred by complacency and arrogance bred by not having been truly challenged in some time, the Republic would not see the Mandalorians as a threat. At most Mandalore expected them to send one, maybe two of their capital ships to stop them, in addition to the few Republic ships already in this sector which would need to be dealt with very soon. This would not be enough for them to stop the Mandalorians. A part of the goal of taking Onderon was also to take Onderon's fleet which itself contained Queen Talia's capital ship _The Drexl_ as well as several frigates and cruisers. These could then be added to the Mandalorians' own fleet. Though these ships were mostly a show of Onderon's supposed "military might", under the command of battle hardened Mandalorians they would serve well enough. Mandalore then planned on continuing the trend to other planets and systems as they made their way toward Coruscant, slowly building his fleet until it could match anything the Republic could throw at it.

When Mandalore had revealed this plan to his men they had no more doubt. The only thing better then defeating your enemy, was to defeat your enemy with their own weapons. What Mandalore had not told his men was that he also was expecting a reinforcement of several more capital ships, frigates, and cruisers from his "suppliers" who had insisted on remaining in the shadows, even to Mandalore's own trusted soldiers. He had no real problem with keeping this information from them. After all, Mandalore didn't necessarily trust those who had made the promise of reinforcements to him. They weren't Mandalorian after all. Because of this he didn't want his men expecting something that might not arrive. This would not do him any favors as far as leading them into battle went. There was also the fact that Mandalore knew that if his men thought they were working with such a reduced fleet it would make them fight that much harder in order to gain victory. A Mandalorian with a stun stick would still fight an opponent with a blaster rifle, he would just fight much harder, and smarter, in order to defeat his enemy. His men would still win the day, even without a larger fleet, and they would gain more glory for it, and more glory for them meant more glory for him.

Mandalorian Commander Canderous Ordo flew point for the squadron of Basilisk War Droids, known as Kinrath Squadron, hurtling towards Onderon. The name was a reference to the sizable (growing to between 1.2 and 1.5 meters in height) predatory arthropods that could be found on many some of the more "untamed" planets from Kashyyyk to Dantooine. They possessed six main legs and a seventh "stinger" leg that protruded from the top of their bodies and introduced deadly poison into anyone they struck with it. Kinrath were quick, violent, very hard to kill, and tended to swarm, a perfect name for his squad as far as Canderous was concerned. He kept the fourteen other Basilisks in seven rows of two lined up behind him in order to help reduce their visible numbers to the planet below. Of course Canderous knew that the Onderonians weren't watching the skies for them.

During the Great Sith War of Exar Kun almost thirty-three standard years earlier, the Mandalorians had first attempted to take Onderon and were defeated. They had retreated, ending up in the jungles of Dxun, and had begun their colonization of the jungle moon. Most Mandalorians blamed this defeat on their Sith overseers rather then their leader, Mandalore the Indomitable, though many thought him to be an unworthy Mandalore in the end. It was he who had been defeated by Exar Kun's then apprentice Ulic Qel-Droma. The wager of the battle was that if Mandalore was defeated, he would swear his allegiance, and that of his men, to Ulic Qel-Droma. Mandalore not only did this, but he became one of Qel-Droma's most fiercely loyal followers during the war, recognizing a superior warrior in Ulic Qel-Droma. Some saw this as Mandalore submitting his rule to an outsider. And after all, if Mandalore was the greatest of all Mandalorians, how could he be subjugated by another who was not Mandalorian? In the end, when Mandalore the Indomitable's ship had crash landed on Dxun after the Mandalorian retreat from Onderon, he had been set upon and devoured by the beasts of Dxun, further proof for some that he was unworthy to lead the Mandalorians. One of his warriors took his helmet, after killing the beasts that had killed Mandalore, and became the new Mandalore, Mandalore the Ultimate.

It had been because of this defeat over three decades ago, that the Onderonians had grown arrogant about their abilities in war. They would never expect the Mandalorians to attack again because they would never believe themselves capable of defeat at the hands of the Mandalorians. To the Onderonians it would be so much foolishness on the part of Mandalore to even think to attack them again.

This time it would be different, Canderous thought. They had no Sith to bungle their plans with their obsession with the "Dark Side" or their hatred of the Jedi, and Mandalore the Ultimate would not debase himself by allowing outsiders to usurp his leadership.

Canderous opened a channel to his squadron through his Basilisk which was still blazing a course for Iziz. For him a lot was riding on the success of this battle. Though he had distinguished himself many times over in other battles, this one would be the beginning of a greater glory for Clan Ordo and for Mandalore.

"This is Kinrath Leader, all Basilisks report battle readiness," he said through his helmet comm. system that was linked through his Basilisk. It was the first thing that had been spoken on the squadron channel, Mandalorians did not engage in idle comm. chatter.

"Kinrath Two, ready."

"Kinrath Three, ready."

"Kinrath Four, ready."

Down the line all fourteen pilots reported their readiness. Many had to fight to keep from adding a report of their willingness. Canderous knew that all his men were anxious to get to the battle. Mandalorians weren't the type to enjoy the journey much, it was all about the battle, and the Basilisks were the front line. They would be the first to engage. It was their job to take out any snubfighters that were launched or any Air Defense towers that would pose a threat.

"Alright, form up on me and keep the line tight. Kinraths Two through Nine prepare to break formation on my mark!" Canderous heard eight clicks over the comm. system signaling that the wings had received and understood orders.

The plan was simple but effective. The eight Basilisks directly behind Canderous would break off on his orders and form four groups of two Basilisks each. Two groups from either side would break into port and starboard flanking positions. Each group with their pair of wing mates would then target all Air Defense towers in the path of the remaining Basilisk flight as well as any peripheral ADTs that might cause problems later. The job of the remaining seven Basilisks, including the one Canderous himself flew, was to act essentially as a fist that would come smashing into the walls of Iziz, causing as much destruction and confusion as possible and then landing in the most defendable spot and unloading the Mandalorians to start pushing their way to the Palace. The initial eight Basilisks in the air would then work as air support for the ground troops as well as continuing to take out any ADTs or snubfighters the Onderonians managed to launch. The reason for having groups of two was to allow each Basilisk to watch the other's back, increasing the chances of both surviving.

Each Basilisk bomber contained two Mandalorians, one to pilot and one to man the guns and bombs. Canderous's Basilisk was the only one in the squad that contained just himself, but he was enough of a Mandalorian, in his opinion, to handle both flight control and weapons systems effectively. Besides that, he had flown this same Basilisk War Droid in his last ten engagements. He and it had a special bond, and Canderous Ordo shared his Basilisk with no man. Of course all Basilisks had a measure of intelligence and could perform limited maneuvering and fighting on their own if its pilot needed to be occupied with something else for a moment, but it was the Mandalorian or Mandalorians attached to it that made it a truly spectacle weapon of mass destruction.

With two Mandalorians in each Basilisk bomber plus Canderous himself who would lead the ground troops, there would be a total of seventeen initial ground troops. This would be more than enough to secure the landing area and start making an advance until reinforcements could be deployed. Canderous though was betting his men wouldn't even need the reinforcements by the time they took the Sky Ramp to the Palace.

Canderous Ordo loved war, and he was very, very good at it. This battle would be over before it was begun and he would receive much praise from its success. Maybe even Mandalore himself would honor him. In the end that really didn't matter. Even if no one recognized his success, he knew, and that's all that mattered to Canderous.

His Basilisk alerted him that the drop point was fast approaching and Canderous started double-checking his system to ensure final battle readiness. His system showed green across the board and Canderous reopened the squadron channel.

"Alright men, this is it. Anyone feel like wetting 'em do it now and then go find yourself a hole to crawl into. The rest of you get ready for insertion. Kinraths Two through Nine break off on my mark…" Canderous looked again at the rapidly descending count down on his heads up display that told him how close he was from the surface of the planet. "Three, two, one…Mark! Alright men, lets take what should have been ours in the last war!"


	3. Ch 2 The Fall at Iziz Part II

**Chapter Two Part Two**

With the fateful words of his commander still echoing in his helmet's headset, Kinrath Two broke to port away from the rest of the squad still heading straight ahead, and immediately paired up with Kinrath Four who was designated as his wing mate. The wing pair increased speed until they had pulled slightly ahead of Canderous Ordo's Basilisk designated "Kinrath Leader" or "Viper Kinrath" and before too long "slightly ahead" became significantly ahead. Kinrath Two's pilot was named Jagi and he had served under Canderous Ordo on onlyone other campaign. So far he already liked his wing commander. He appreciated Commander Ordo's zeal for the battle. He himself found it hard to concentrate as completely on such things. He believed, as all Mandalorians did, that conflict determined who one was and who one would become, but he did not seek it openly like many other Mandalorians. He welcomed it when it came, but never did much to try and hunt it down in the way that Commander Ordo seemed to.

Jagi looked over at his gunner and Basilisk companion Reeza. Reeza seemed to be completely engrossed in monitoring the weapons displays, preparing for the time when he would get to unleash the might of their Basilisk War Droid on the unsuspecting populace of Iziz. Jagi was not too impressed with the gunner yet. He seemed to have the same zeal for battle that Commander Ordo had, but none of the intellect for strategy. In Jagi's opinion men like Reeza were nothing much more than blaster cannon fodder. The only thing that saved Reeza in Jagi's opinion was the fact that, if nothing else, he was still Mandalorian.

The only other Basilisk drop Jagi had been on had been nothing like this. There were two main differences between this drop and what would be called a normal drop. The first was the fact that they had flown their Basilisks from launch point to destination. Normally the Basilisks would have been loaded onto a carrier ship or cruiser, taken to the far edge of the planet's atmosphere and dropped to the planet below. The Mandalorian or Mandalorians would only be exposed to space for a moment and then would fall to the planet until they passed into the lower atmosphere where they would then be able to turn away from their fall and begin their assault. The pilot too would be forced to wear highly pressurized armor for the few moments when they were exposed to the lack of atmosphere since Basilisks were completely open to the surrounding space and the pilot was essentially "riding" on its back. This made it a little harder for anyone trying to shoot a Basilisk out of the sky since they were smaller and more maneuverable then most snubfighters, but it also made it a little harder on the pilot if they were then to land and become ground troops, as pressure suits tended to make close combat even more difficult.

Because of the unique nature of the atmosphere chain that was shared by both Onderon and Dxun and which effectively bound them together, Mandalore had decided that the Basilisks would take off from Dxun and make the entire flight to Onderon without the aid of another ship to act as a carrier for them. This would allow the larger ships to hang further back during the initial advancements so that the Onderonians might be less likely to see them coming, and because of the atmosphere chain, the pilots didn't need any additional armor or pressure suits, they merely wore their regular armor.

It was an odd sensation for Jagi. He had been able to breath as if he was flying just above the surface of a planet instead of towards one through space. The only noticeable effect of the entire trip had been the subtle yet quick change in the perceivable pull of gravity. Initially it had been at his rear as he pulled away from Dxun, but suddenly had started coming from his front towards Onderon. There had been a very brief moment when he had actually felt the gravitational pull from both sides and for a second it felt like there was no longer any up or down.

As they closed on the planetJagi was faced with another difference between this drop and any other. Normally in a drop the Basilisk was coated in a heavy ablative armor shell that slowly burned away from the droid as it entered the atmosphere. This not only allowed droid and rider to keep from disintegrating from friction as they hit atmo, but also allowed for the heavy armor to burn away over time, so that by the time they reached the point where they could maneuver again, the Basilisk would be much lighter and able to maneuver like a flitfly in Summer. In this case, since there was no real entry into an atmosphere since they technically had never left an atmosphere to begin with, the droid outfitters had done away with the ablative armor and used the extra space to add another blaster cannon to the rear end of the Basilisk, making the Basilisks lighter from the start but more heavily armed and capable of shooting behindat any possible pursuers.

Instead of seeing ignited air burning past him as he hurtled toward the planet, as he had seen the first time he had done a drop, all he could see was the planet of Onderon getting larger and larger and all he could feel was the gravitational pull getting stronger and stronger in that direction. It was quite a different experience, but far less violent then a regular drop, for which Jagi was secretly grateful, though he knew most, if not all of the squadron would not agree.

Jagi watched as his Basilisk ticked off its relative location to the planet, watched as it counted down to 3040 meters. Then suddenly they were there and their Basilisk made a course change to a twenty-five degree angle down from perpendicular relative to the planet. The descent was slowly angling off towards ninety degrees or a parallel route to the planets surface. This part of the drop was completely done by the Basilisk. It wasn't his job as pilot to worry about such broad course adjustments. He was to handle the sharper juking and jinking, and fine evasive maneuvering of a battle that has been met. For right now at least, he and Reeza were just along for the ride. By the time the Basilisk reached 287 meters it shifted course drastically to follow a path almost completely parallel to the planets surface though still descending and thenthere it was right in front of him, the closest Onderonian Air Defense Tower.

Jagi knew without looking at his sensors that his wing mate, Kinrath Four was still with him and that Kinraths Six and Eight had taken up a position slightly to starboard and were coming up on their own ADT. Jagi could also see, even from this distance that the ADT in the targeting reticle had its large twin guns aimed in the opposite direction, away from his and Kinrath Four's position. The Onderonians had absolutely no idea what was happening yet. It was just as Mandalore had predicted.

As they rocketed toward the ADT, Jagi could see that it was finally starting to turn towards them. He imagined that right about now the Royal military was in a panicas they finally saw fifteen fast moving blips on their radar screens. He was still sure they didn't know exactly what was going on because he could see no signs of any starfighter activity. They were relying on their ADTs to do the job of taking down the flight of Basilisks. That would be a big mistake that they would finally realize in just about one minute.

Jagi could see Reeza tense slightly out of the corner of his eye. He knew the gunner was getting ready to start firing, which meant that he needed to start getting ready to start flying.

Then they were there and Reeza unleashed an unholy barrage of blaster fire from the forward blaster cannons. They were still twenty meters above the ADT and closing in on its position. Jagi halted their decent and rolled the Basilisk slightly to starboard so that he would be able to keep it on the other side of the tower's turret cannons which were turning anti-clockwise on the port side. The blaster turret still hadn't come more then halfway around before Reeza's onslaught, but Jagi didn't want to give them a chance to close the gap. Kinrath Four matched their movements and then flipped over and placed themselves below Jagi's Basilisk. Their gunner started firing their own blasters, placing them just behind Reeza's shots.

Reeza's shots impacted on the tower just below the rotating turret base at the joint that separated the turret from the tower. The ferrocrete started to crumble away under the blaster bolts and the machinery underneath began to show through. Reeza followed his blaster fire with a double shot from the Basilisk's shatter-missile launchers which finished the job he and Kinrath Four's gunner had started, and transformed the small holes they had created with their blaster cannons into large pits. The turret emitted a loud groaning noise as parts of the remaining ferrocrete started grinding against parts of the exposed machinery. The turret was having obvious difficulty continuing its turn, and Jagi had managed to keep its rear side between them and the turret's deadly blaster cannons.

By this time their Basilisks had started passing by and over the ADT, but Reeza still had more shooting to do. From the rear cannon he let loose one more well placed volley, putting it right in the massive hole they had just created. Then Kinrath Four's gunner followed it with a volley from their own rear cannon.

The effect was spectacular. The twin volleys had obviously hit something critical because the turret was suddenly engulfed in a massive fireball that emanated from the Mandalorian made hole at its base. Before Jagi even had a chance to turn their Basilisk around, the turret exploded, taking out most of the top of the tower with it.

One tower down. Jagi started looking for their next target and found it 500 meters to starboard. He also saw that Kinraths Six and Eight had managed to take out their own tower, though Jagi noticed they hadn't done it in as violent and explosive manner as Reeza and the gunner from Kinrath Four. Jagi designated the tower in front of him as target, and noticed Kinrath Six's pilot designate another tower further starboard as his own target. Slowly but surely they had gone from a far port flanking position relative to Commander Canderous's own flight, further and further inward in a pincer action. Relative to the Commander's flight they were now almost a kilometer ahead and moving to a position almost directly in front of. If everything worked out as planned they would be meeting up with Kinraths Three, Five, Seven, and Nine somewhere in the middle. Essentially they were taking out any towers that could fire on the core flight's sides and were moving to take out any that would threaten it from the front so that their pilots could focus on the city walls and on landing.

KinrathTwo finished off the second tower and was moving onto the next one further starboard and ahead when the air suddenly became a lot more crowded as a squadron of ten Onderonian starfighters finally managed to launch from their bays. It wouldn't be nearly enough, Jagi thought, but it would definitely slow things down a little.

Three of the enemyfighters peeled off from the main squadron and headed towards the position held by Jagi and the rest of the left flank while three more took off towards the right flanking flight. The last four headed straight up the middle towards Canderous Ordo and his core flight. Jagi started to alter course to intercept the fighters but remembered their third and final tower. Looking up at it he noticed that this one had managed to lock it's cannons on him and Kinrath Four.

The turret began to let loose with its volley of high powered blaster bolts. Jagi took quick evasive action and noticed Kinrath Four doing the same. The bolts sizzled past Jagi's Basilisk a little too closely for his comfort. Jagi looked down at his sensors and noticed that in the interim two of the three enemy fighters had engaged Kinraths Six and Eight while the third was heading to engage Jagi's own Basilisk and Kinrath Four. Unfortunately for Kinraths Six and Eight, they also had to contend with their own ADT as well as the two fighters.

Quickly a plan formulated in Jagi's head and he transmitted his intentions to Kinrath Four and over to Reeza's panels. At first Reeza looked over at him and Jagi could imagine the quizzical look on his face followed by what must have been a grin. All he actually saw was Reeza's helmet move in a nod and turn back to his instruments. From Kinrath Four's pilot he got a comm. click denoting his acceptance of the plan.

Jagi angled his Basilisk towards the snubfighter and Kinrath Four fell back and in line with them. He poured on the speed in order to close the gap faster and fighter began to grow larger in his sites. It started firing and Jagi kept flying straight towards it letting the bolts ping against the Basilisk's hull. He needed to close the gap before too much damage was done.

Finally the two ships met and Jagi rolled sharply to starboard while the Onderonian snub pulled drastically up. The two ships missed each other by a mere meter and a half, close enough for both hulls to rattle with the vibrations of their passing.

Rather than turning around to engage the snub again, Jagi instead throttled up even more and continued straight on this new course which happened to be, not at all coincidentally, directly towards the tower that was harassing Kinraths Six and Eight who were still trying to engage the two snubfighters they had picked up and avoid the heavy fire from the ADT near them at the same time. Kinrath Four, rather than continuing to follow Jagi stayed on the original course which took it hurtling towards their own tower which was spitting blaster fire towards them at an increasing rate. By the time Kinrath Four arrived at their target tower, Jagi's Basilisk was reaching the one meant for Kinraths Six and Eight who were still trading shots with the two fighters. The tower now in front of him was still trying to pin Kinraths Six and Eight down and hadn't yet noticed that Jagi was even there.

Jagi watched as Reeza lined up his shot and let it loose. In an amazing display of marksmanship the shot managed to shoot right up into the barrel of the turret's port blaster cannon in the brief pause between its own shots. The explosion that followed moved up the barrel until it reached the turret walls and then kept going. In a matter of seconds the turret was vaporized and Jagi was flying through a cloud of smoke where it used to be.

Now that they no longer had to worry about evading the turret as well, Kinraths Six and Eight made quick work of the two snubfighters. Jagi looped his Basilisk up and over turning it back the way he had just come. Ahead he saw that Kinrath Four had managed to take out the other tower as well. He also noticed that the other fighter that he had narrowly avoided had managed to get itself turned around and was heading straight for Kinrath Four which hadn't yet turned around from its run on the turret tower. Jagi set a course to intercept the fighter and Reeza caught it by surprise as it focused on Kinrath Four. The fighter went up in a brief ball of fire as Kinrath Four turned to head towards the fighters moving at Commander Ordo's flight. Their gunner managed to take out two of the four fighters that had begun engaging the core flight's Basilisks. The other two were dispatched by Commander Ordo and one of the Basilisks in his flight. By the time all this was done the starboard flanking flight had managed to take care of two of their three snubfighters when a call came out over the squadron comm. from Kinrath Seven.

"Turret took out my thrusters, I'm going to…."

The rest of the message never came and Jagi saw a small explosion as the Basilisk with it's two Mandalorian riders went up in flames. The first casualty for the Mandalorians. Jagi put on the boosters and came up on the ADT that had just fried Kinrath Seven. It was already suffering a lot of damage that the starboard flanking flight had dealt to it before the enemy fighters had engaged it. Reeza made quick work of it while the remaining three Basilisks from the flight pinned the last fighter down and blasted it to so much durasteel dust.

Out of the corner of his eye Jagi saw an explosion. Turning his head that way he saw that Commander Ordo's flight had just smashed through a large portion of the great Wall of Iziz and were now firing at every building in the area. From his position, Jagi could see tiny Onderonians fleeing back and forth in a panic.

Turning his Basilisk around Jagi headed for the carnage. It was still his job to act as air support once Commander Ordo and his men touched down. In the back of his mind Jagi had a touch of disappointment. While it was true they he didn't relish conflict as much as other Mandalorians, the Onderonians hadn't offered up anything even close to a challenge. The Basilisks alone had cut through Iziz's defenses like a vibroblade through cloth. If the Republic didn't offer up more resistance than the Onderonians, this would be a very short war, and even Jagi found no comfort in that thought.


	4. Ch 2 The Fall at Iziz Part III

**Author's Note: Chapter Two part Three**

Canderous aimed his Basilisk at the Merchant Quarter of Iziz. It was a prime position because it dead ended in one corner and was the closest securable position to the Sky Ramp which led directly to the palace. Canderous planned to land his flight in the northeastern most corner of the Quarter. Three of the Basilisks in his flight would land facing towards the run to the Sky Ramp located directly west of their position, the other three would land facing south, and Canderous himself would land between them.

The Quarter positioning had one tactical draw back however, but it was not insurmountable. From Canderous's planned landing position he would have the Iziz spaceport which opened onto the Quarter from the far southwest on the opposite side of the Quarter. Fortunately that was still almost two hundred meters away and only posed a threat if there happened to be any armed soldiers in that area. On the far northwest side of the Quarter past the entrance to the Sky Ramp was the entrance to the Western Square which Canderous understood to contain a cantina, a doctor's office, and some housing so he didn't anticipate much fire coming from that direction. He knew the Sky Ramp would be heavily guarded, especially after the attack and it posed the greatest problem of them all.

From the Mandalorians' recon they knew the Sky Ramp run was segmented by two shielding stations and divided by a large open courtyard. On the west end of the courtyard there were barracks and past the courtyard to the northeast the Sky Ramp continued onto the palace. This entrance was blocked by the first shielding station.

The courtyard would pose a slight problem in that it was far too wide and open to find any cover in and probably contained the largest concentration of soldiers. Canderous and his men would have to make their way up the first leg of the Sky Ramp, which was, quite unfortunately, a narrow upward sloping path. This would give the Onderonians the high ground and put the Mandalorians in a position of being somewhat like fish in a barrel. Once they managed to make it to the courtyard they would have to fend off soldiers the entire way to the first shield station, which they were already prepared to counter with a shield disruptor. The shield disruptor, however, would take thirty seconds to activate fully and drop the shields. During that time Canderous and his men would have to hold off the soldiers in the courtyard who would have the barracks to find cover in. Once the shield was down they would then have the added task of rushing another narrow upward slope and facing what ever guards were placed between the two shields. Once they got to the second shield they would have to do the same thing again only this time they would have troops ahead and behind to contend with. One thing in the Mandalorians' favor was the fact that in one corner of the Sky Ramp courtyard there had been an ADT which, of course, had been obliterated by the Basilisks in the sky. Canderous was hoping that there would be enough debris and confusion to facilitate the Mandalorians' assault. The other thing in their favor was the seven Basilisks left in the air laying down surpressing fire.

After all of this they would finally be at the palace which they would merely have to storm, track down the Queen and capture her. Any other Commander would have taken off his rank insignia and told his commanding officer where he could shove it. Canderous however reveled in the challenge of what lay before him. He would take the Sky Ramp with nothing more than the sixteen men on the ground with him and his seven Basilisks in the sky.

His Basilisk was the first to touch down, its metal claws sinking deeply into the ground. The other six Basilisks quickly followed. Before disembarking, each Mandalorian let loose a volley from their shatter-missile launchers and took down even more of the buildings around them. This added to the general confusion, but also gave them a chance to disembark without worrying about possible soldiers stationed in the Quarter waiting to pick them off. The Basilisks had been programmed to continue to let off volleys of blaster fire and shatter-missiles every so often, as long as a Mandalorian wasn't in the line of fire. This would give the Mandalorians some cover fire while they made their way to the Sky Ramp.

Canderous jumped from his Basilisk, his heavy repeating blaster rifle at the ready and squeezed off a couple shots into the smoke and debris and his men following suit. This was it. Canderous prepared himself. Starting his run across the long Quarter to the Sky Ramp entrance Canderous raised his head to shout.

"FOR MANDALORE!" he bellowed. The war cry was quickly taken up by his fellow Mandalorians.

"FOR MANDALORE!" sixteen other voices called out. And then everything dissolved into blaster fire as the ground battle officially started.


	5. Ch 2 The Fall at Iziz Part IV

Private Aiden Dakaar of the Onderonian Royal Military crouched behind what used to be the wall of a second story, two bedroom dwelling which used to be part of the residential complex behind him. The status and condition of the complex in the Merchant Quarter had changed drastically when it was hit by a barrage of Mandalorian shatter-missiles fired from their hated Basilisk War Droids.

Aiden Dakaar had just turned eighteen standard years old four months ago. For his eighteenth birthday he had enlisted in the Onderonian Royal Military, just like his father, Jaithen Dakaar, had done almost thirty years ago when he had turned eighteen and just like his grandfather Timen Dakaar had done when he had turned eighteen. Fresh out of Basic Training, Aiden had never even seen a Mandalorian in his life. He hadn't even been born, and his father had been barely fifteen when the Mandalorians had first attacked Onderon during what the Jedi liked to call the Great Sith War. Aiden had never seen a Jedi before either for that matter. His grandfather had seen both. It was during that conflict over three decades ago that Aiden's grandfather had been killed by a squad of Mandalorians. The Onderonians had been able, with the help of the Beast Riders, the Republic, and the Jedi, to drive the Mandalorians back off planet, but it hadn't been soon enough for Aiden's grandfather. Jaithen himself had been taken by his mother, Aiden's grandmother, and sister, Aiden's aunt, into a safe house, far away from the battle raging throughout the streets of Iziz, so he never did see anything of the battle. Jaithen had wanted to join the fighting, to fight alongside his father, but since he was not yet eighteen he could do nothing but hide with his mother and sister. He used to tell Aiden stories of how he remembered in great detail the sound of explosions and blaster fire as well as the screams of both men and women as they were gunned down by the invaders, and not enough screams from the invaders themselves, except for one, a war cry that Aiden had just heard for himself, "For Mandalore!" Jaithen had hated those words as he hated nothing else except those beings that spoke them and he had taught his hatred to his son over the course Aiden's childhood.

Matters had been made worse during the last part of Jaithen's life. Because of his bitterness over what had befallen his father and his own personal shame at having been unable to do anything about it, Jaithen drank heavily and was eventually drummed out of the military only four years after enlisting for Conduct Unbefitting an Officer. Due to sympathy from ORM officials over what had happened to Timen Dakaar in the war, Jaithen had managed to avoid greater charges and the whole thing was more or less swept under the rug. To Jaithen however, the incident just added more to his personal shame and caused to him to crawl even further into the bottle.

Aiden's mother had taken pity on Jaithen when he had ended up in a detox center where she did volunteer work. Jaithen got cleaned up and the two got married. For once things seemed to be going right for Jaithen. The birth of Aiden made things seem even brighter.

Then one day Jaithen was walking through the Merchant Quarter when he heard a fight break out near the entrance to the spaceport. He rushed over to see what was going on and saw something he had never thought he would see.

A Mandalorian had landed in the spaceport and was being held back from entering the Merchant Quarter by guards. The guards were denying his entry to the Quarter and the Mandalorian was protesting loudly. Finally ORM soldiers arrived on the scene. They told the Mandalorian that he was not welcome in Iziz and that he must return to his ship and leave the planet.

Jaithen went into a rage. A hated Mandalorian, whose people had destroyed Jaithen's life, was being gently ushered out of the city? Jaithen started screaming for the Mandalorian's blood, saying that the soldiers were being weak and that the Mandalorian scum needed to die. He started trying to push his way towards the Mandalorian who, by this point, was making his way back towards his ship. The soldiers held Jaithen back and this made Jaithen rage even harder. He was being held back while that Mandalorian was being allowed to leave! Jaithen threw a punch which landed on the jaw of one of the soldiers trying to hold him back. And before he knew it, Jaithen was unconscious as the soldier returned the blow.

When he awoke he was in a detention cell. Once again out of sympathy the ORM looked the other way and Jaithen was released. Instead of going home however, Jaithen went to the nearest bar.

Most of Aiden's memories growing up involved his father in varying levels of inebriation until Jaithen finally died due to kidney failure two years ago when Aiden was sixteen. It was this that had given him an even sharper hatred for Mandalorians. They had taken away his grandfather, and then they took away his father too. Aiden was only too anxious to enlist in the hopes that maybe he would get his chance to get revenge, for himself, for his father, and for his grandfather.

Life in the Onderonian Royal Military had been a lot of parading and marching in formation until this moment. Honestly the ORM didn't really have any enemies to speak of, with the exception of course of the Mandalorians, but they hadn't shown themselves as a threat in so long, the ORM didn't even really have a plan of action in the event of another attempted invasion. It was firmly believed by all Onderonians that they would never see the Mandalorians again, that the Mandalorians would have to be fools to try another attack, especially since their fleet had been all but decimated during the war. Apparently the Mandalorians were bigger fools then the Onderonians had thought, or maybe it was the Onderonians who had been foolish.

It was still early in Iziz. The troops in Aiden's unit had barely gotten through their morning drills in the courtyard of the Sky Ramp when the klaxons had gone crazy. Soldiers started running every direction, towards monitors, towards radar screens, towards the armory. Aiden had looked around in confusion. They had performed alarm and air raid drills of course, every military did, but this didn't seem like any drill they had ever done. Finally Aiden had snapped out of it and had flagged down one of his fellow soldiers to ask him what was going on.

"Don't know exactly," the soldier had said frantically. "Sensor Units are showing fifteen…somethings headed this way!"

Before Aiden could ask what a "something" was the soldier had pulled himself free of Aiden's grasp and was running again on his original course.

"Fighters incoming!" someone shouted. Several soldiers started running towards their stations in the Air Defense Towers.

Aiden was at a loss. He couldn't see a commanding officer anywhere. Then he heard the tone that announced that the PA system was about to broadcast.

"Attention, attention," It was Colonel Tobin, second in command of the Onderonian Royal Military. "This is not a drill. All Turret Soldiers to you stations. All other soldiers maintain battle readiness and await further instructions."

_All other soldiers await further instructions?_ Aiden had thought to himself. _Shouldn't we be scrambling our fighters?_

Aiden wondered what Colonel Tobin could possibly be thinking but kept it to himself. After all, Aiden had learned from his father's mistakes to obey orders and toe-the-line. If Colonel Tobin didn't think the fighters were necessary then maybe they weren't.

Suddenly, from a distance came an explosion. Had the turrets already downed one of…whatever they were? Then there was another explosion, and another. Then Aiden heard something he had never truly thought he would hear in a million years.

"I-it's the M-mandalorians! They've returned…they've returned to finish us all!" A shout came from somewhere. Aiden wasn't sure from whom or from where it had come. His mind had shut down. This was impossible! As much as Aiden had hated the Mandalorians for so long, for as long as he had wanted to finally take his revenge on them, he had never thought he would ever get a chance. Aiden began to dismiss the whole thing. It couldn't possibly be the Mandalorians. Whoever had shouted was just paranoid and mistaken, Aiden was sure of it now, they had to be.

Then the PA toned again and the cool voice of Colonel Tobin poured from it, uttering words that caught Aiden's breath in his throat and chilled him to the bone.

"Attention, attention. We are under assault by a squadron of Mandalorian Basilisk War Droids. They have already destroyed thr-," Aiden barely heard the next explosion, it was hard to hear anything over the rapid beating of his heart. "...four of our Air Defense Towers," the Colonel amended. "Pilots of Drexl Squadron scramble your fighters. That is all."

The PA system shut off and an eerie silence settled over the soldiers collected in courtyard. The silence was soon broken by the sound of another explosion.

One squadron? Just one squadron against Basilisk War Droids? How could they think that would be enough? Surely Colonel Tobin was mad.

Aiden's felt his head spinning. He looked up into the sky and saw ten Onderonian starfighters blasting overhead, Drexl Squadron was off to fight an enemy that Aiden knew they wouldn't be able to stop.

Several more explosions followed, Aiden lost count of them all. He heard some cheering from some soldiers nearby and absently thought that they must have finally managed to destroy a Basilisk. Maybe they had destroyed more, maybe not all of those explosions had been losses for the Onderonians. Then he remembered something his father had told him once. He had been drunk of course, but Aiden would never forget the words.

_"A Mandalorian is like cannok, son. Stupid and ravenous, it'll eat anything in its path, even to the point of destroying all sources of food so that it no longer has any food left. You can shoot at it and maybe you'll hit it, but that'll just make it more determined to destroy you too. The weaker you make it, the harder it fights. The only thing you can do is keep shooting, and hope that you are the last one standing."_

Aiden was pulled back from the memory by another explosion, but this one was closer, much closer. So close in fact that it had knocked him off his feet. The air was full of black smoke and Aiden could see fire in the opposite part of the courtyard, the part where the ADT use to be. Now all that was there was a pile of rubble. Aiden thought that he saw arms and legs jutting from the rubble, but there were far too many to be just one soldier and far too few to be three whole ones.

Aiden was delirious. He didn't know what was happening anymore. He wasn't even sure he was still alive. He felt numb and hopeless. He wondered if his grandfather had felt this way the last time the Mandalorians had come to Onderon.

Aiden didn't remember much from that point on. He had a vague recollection of someone thrusting a standard issue blaster rifle into his hands and ordering him down to the Merchant Quarter. Something was said about how a section of the great wall there had fallen. Then he was following other soldiers. He followed them blindly.

The next thing he remembered he was crouched behind rubble that used to be part of a wall of a second story two bedroom dwelling of a residential complex.

His resparation was quick and uneven. He clutched his blaster rifle so tightly that it made his knuckles white. The blaster was shaking…no…it was his hands that were shaking.

Then a part of his brain starting yelling at the rest of it. _"Pull yourself together!"_ it said and it sounded like his father's voice. _"A man doesn't cower behind rubble! This is your chance…your chance to avenge me and the grandfather you never got a chance to meet! Don't just stand there shaking…fight!...kill! KILL THEM ALL!"_

Aiden Dakaar pulled himself together. He calmed his breathing and straightened. He loosened the grip on his rifle. He couldn't fail at this. He must avenge his father, his grandfather. He focused his attention and heard rustling. It was almost drowned out by the sound of blaster fire that seemed to be everywhere but Aiden could still hear it.

Moving to the edge of the rubble, Aiden looked around the corner. He saw a dark shape. He couldn't quite make it out but the form looked to be covered in armor. Aiden raised his blaster. He would have his revenge. He steadied his finger on the trigger and squeezed, just like they had taught him in training.

A blaster bolt spat forth from the rifle. Aiden was kicked back slightly as the rifle butted up against his shoulder. The blaster bolt connected with the shadowy figure. It swayed slightly and then crumpled over. He had done it! He had caught the monster by surprise and had taken it down!

Aiden rushed over towards the place where the Mandalorian had fallen, gaining new confidence with each step. As he approached the crumpled figure he slowed down. He wanted to enjoy this moment. When he got to the spot where he had downed his enemy, Aiden looked at the ground.

At his feet lay a familiar face. It took Aiden a moment as the shock fought its way back over him to recognize it. It was Reelit Kophie. They had gone through training together, they had been friends. But how had he gotten here? Where was the Mandalorian Aiden had shot? He couldn't have shot Reelit could he? No, there was some mistake.

Suddenly, pain washed through Aiden. It felt like his back was on fire. He collapsed on the ground and realized he could no longer feel his back. In fact, Aiden couldn't feel anything at all. He moved his head slightly and realized that he had fallen on Reelit. He tried to move but couldn't. What had happened? Why couldn't he move?

A shadow fell across his face and Aiden moved his head as best he could to look up at whatever was over him. Aiden found himself staring up into the T-shaped visor of a Mandalorian helmet. The Mandalorian leveled his blaster at Aiden's head.

The last thing to go through Aiden's head before the blaster bolt from the Mandalorian's gun was a thought laced with regret and sorrow.

_"I failed you father, and now no one will be around to avenge me."_ Aiden Dakaar didn't think anything else. Aiden Dakaar was dead for the glory of Mandalore.

* * *

General Vaklu, cousin to Queen Talia of Onderon and leader of the Onderonian Royal Military was, for the first time in his life, unsure of what to do. 

He and his forces had been caught completely off guard by the Mandalorian assault. When they had actually caught the fifteen contacts on their senor readouts, he had expected that they were inconsequential, maybe a flight of drexl as had been known to fly over Iziz from time to time. Such things hadn't been a threat since peace was made between the Onderonians and the Beast Riders. When he realized that they weren't drexl he had ordered the ADTs manned and armed. He felt they would be enough.

He had been wrong. By the time they had received a verified report that the contacts were Mandalorians, the hostiles had already destroyed three ADTs in tandem and were finishing off one more. At that point he had ordered Drexl Squadron to intercept. Colonel Tobin had asked if maybe they should deploy more fighters. General Vaklu hadn't wanted to bother wasting time and fuel on a threat that wouldn't amount to much. Surely between the ten fighters and the remaining towers they would be able to halt the advancing Basilisks. After all, they had defeated them once before, they could do it again.

Again Vaklu had been wrong. The fighters had been plucked from the air and the remaining towers had fallen. Vaklu was about to order more fighters into the air when Tobin had informed him that the hanger doors had been blocked by debris, no more starfighters would be able to escape.

When he had received word that part of the great wall had fallen near the Merchant Quarter, Vaklu ordered soldiers deployed to the Quarter and to reinforce the Sky Ramp. The Mandalorians might have managed to cut off any air support for the Onderonians but surely they wouldn't be able to take the Sky Ramp. It was built to give the Onderonian defenders an advantage over any hostile force.

As General Vaklu looked at the monitor showing the engagement on the Sky Ramp he realized that he had once again been wrong, and this mistake might be his last. The monitor showed ten Mandalorians that had already made it to the courtyard. From the reports Vaklu knew that the other seven of the initial ground assault had remained at the base of the Sky Ramp to keep any Onderonian soldiers from attacking the advancing Mandalorians from the rear. So far no Mandalorians had been reported as having been killed in the ground assault. The same could not be said about his forces. Already he had seen twelve fall on his monitors, and that had just been since the Mandalorians had started up the Sky Ramp (and didn't include the seven other soldiers that had been guarding the entrance to the Sky Ramp that surely must have been killed for the Mandalorians to have made it this far).

The Mandalorians seemed unstoppable. He saw as they crossed the courtyard as if they were doing nothing more complicated then crossing the street. When a unit of his own men began firing from the bunker, it seemed that finally the Mandalorians would face some opposition, but that lasted only as long as it took for a pair of Basilisks to completely obliterate the bunker with a fly by. Even with that, Vaklu felt compelled to be sure that they wouldn't possibly be able to get past the force shields that had snapped into place as soon as word had reached him that the Mandalorians had taken the Sky Ramp entrance, but given how many times he had been wrong so far since this had started, Vaklu held the thought in check.

He was right to, for in less than a minute he saw the force barrier flicker and fade. The soldiers behind it started firing, and were mowed down by the advancing Mandalorians for all their trouble.

The entire way up the ramp the Mandalorian ground troops continued to receive air support from the still flying Basilisks. If only he had launched more starfighters before the hanger doors had been blocked. Far too late he realized his greatest folly in all this, underestimating the Mandalorians. He vowed to himself that if he survived this, he would never do such a thing again.

Vaklu dismissed all the soldiers in the Command Center including Tobin and then ran to the communications terminal and sent an urgent transmission to _Tatooine's Twins_, the lead Republic capital ship for this sector, it was a quick transmission burst concerning the situation. He didn't wait for_ Tatooine's Twins _to reply but rather headed for the secret passageway that would lead him safely out of the palace. He was sure at this point that the Mandalorians would make it all the way to the palace. They might be stopped by the palace guards or they might actually be able to make it all the way to the Queen. General Vaklu was not going to wait around to find out. If they were stopped he could put a spin on it and claim he had remained in the Command Center in order to coordinate reinforcements but that the communications grid had fallen and he had soon been trapped. If the Mandalorians succeeded in capturing the Queen, or even killing her, Vaklu could merely stride in and take her place, as he had always had aspirations to, once the Republic had finally routed the invaders. Either way he could work it in his favor.

General Vaklu took one more look back at the monitor. On it the second force screen flickered out of existence. The Mandalorians now had an almost unobstructed run to the palace. All they had to do was make it through the remaining soldiers. Vaklu reflected morbidly that that should only take another five minutes. With that thought he left the Command Center and left the palace behind him. He hoped it would not be forever.


	6. Ch 3 A Jedi Knight Named Revan

Chapter Three: A Jedi Knight Named Revan

Three solid beams of light clashed with the furious sound of a static assault. Their apparent anger caused them to burn bright as they tried, it would seem, without success, to destroy each other.

Two of them belong to the dual lightsabers of the newly knighted Jedi Revan. They both burned a deep and fierce blue. The third belonged to the lightsaber of Revan's former and first Jedi Master, Kreia. Her blade, green as the forest moon of Endor, had so far managed to confound all of Revan's attempts to circumvent it. Try as he might, he could not yet fully match his former Master's fluid fighting abilities.

It seemed that everywhere he attempted to place his blades, hers was there, waiting, deflecting, keeping him from fully realizing his attack. This was somewhat unnerving for the young Jedi Knight. As a Jar'kai master, one who preferred the use of two lightsabers in battle, one to attack and one to defend, it wasn't very common for Revan to be outmatched in a duel. Adding to that the fact that Revan was considered by many to be one of the most promising Jedi ever to be trained in the academy on Dantooine, he was understandably confused by his inability to get the best of the much older woman who had been blind, physically at least, for as long as he had known her.

Her blindness of course meant nothing. She could see, through the Force, anything a normal sighted person could see, and much, much more. The Grey Jedi had always been a mystery to Revan, even while he was her Padawan Learner. He had struggled to understand her "middle-ground" approach to the Force, not really fully following the Jedi role of light side user as was constantly drilled into his head by his other teachers, and yet not falling to the depths of the dark side that had consumed so many Jedi throughout the history of the great Order. She was neither light nor dark, good nor evil, she just was.

"_The Force is not what we make of it, but what it makes of us, and it makes us nothing more than what we are,_" she had told him on one occasion during his training with her when Master and Apprentice had argued whether or not it was the Force that made one fall to the dark side, or whether it was the quality of the person that took them there. "_A murderer is a murderer. The Force will merely make him a murderer with sensitivity to the Force, nothing more or less. Whether he is Sith or Jedi depends on the level of his own delusion._" Revan had always had trouble with the concept since, for Revan, everything always seemed so clear. Everything, at least in his mind, was either there or not there, true or not true, full speed or motionless. There was no half way, and if there was, he found it very hard to acknowledge.

Revan shouldn't have been surprised then that he was having a hard time finding a way around Master Kreia's defense and attack pattern. Why should he be surprised by one more mystery from the cryptic, yet caring woman?

And yet, Revan was determined to win the battle. He had never accepted defeat well, and he would be damned if he accepted it now that he was a full Jedi Knight. How could he justify losing when he knew, deep down, there was always a way to win, it just sometimes meant doing something you normally wouldn't, or possibly shouldn't do.

Between parries and reposts, blocks and thrusts it suddenly came to him. It would merely mean using Kreia's one true strength and her one true weakness against her.

For as long as Revan had been her apprentice, the two had had a connection. So adept in the Force was Kreia, she could communicate telepathically with those close to her, and usually relied on the technique to communicate lessons to her students. Most Jedi could relate feelings and impressions to another, especially in the case of a Master and an Apprentice, but it was very uncommon for true telepathic communication. No wonder he couldn't fool her with his feints, she could feel his every intention through the Force. It was what helped Kreia see even though she was blind. As long as she could feel a connection to him through the Force, he would never win this battle unless he was determined to outlast her. It was very much her greatest strength. It was very much her greatest weakness. She relied on her ability to feel him and her connection to him through the Force, without it, she was just another blind, old woman.

Revan took a quick step back, forcing Kreia to over extend slightly. In the moment Kreia needed to regain her balance, Revan centered himself, concentrating deeply within himself. Focused like this Revan could feel the Force all around and through him. The Force burned like a small star around him and Kreia, connecting them as they exerted themselves and casting "shadows" around them. These "shadows" weren't a lack of the Force, for really the Force was everywhere there was life, but they represented the places where it was less concentrated, less prevalent. Reaching with his senses Revan took hold of these "shadows" and wrapped them around himself, and then he did what no Jedi would ever think of doing in combat…he merely let go. He let go of his connection to the Force, his feel for it, his bond to it. Essentially he stepped back in his perceptions as he had done in reality. The results were quite dramatic.

He saw the change in Kreia's features. A moment of confusion passing over her face as she froze in her tracks. Then he realized that all he could do was "see" the change. The Force didn't send him anything about her feelings or intentions as it had a moment ago, he didn't know what she would do or where she would move. For the first time in a very long time, the only information Revan was receiving was that brought to him by his five senses. Against a Jedi who could see, this would be a very dangerous moment for Revan, for they wouldn't need to rely on the Force to see where he was. The same couldn't be said for Kreia.

Kreia, in a sudden act of desperation made a feint to her right and then brought her lightsaber around with a stroke to the left. It met nothing but air. Revan knew this wouldn't last long. No one can hide in the shadows forever.

Revan took his moment and brought his right-hand lightsaber around. He saw a startled look on Kreia's face as she was able to hear the sound of his blade cutting through the air. She brought hers to meet it, shifting her weight out of the way of where she assumed he would try and place his left-hand lightsaber. She assumed wrong. Before their blades could meet, Revan swung around bringing both his blades in an arc and placing them against Kreia's back. Because of her motion and Revan's sudden disappearance from where he had been, Kreia continued forward. If not for her control of the Force, she would have fallen. Had the lightsabers not been set to a training power, she would also have been very much dead. As it was all she felt was a slight stinging in her back from where Revan's blades had touched. She stood still for a moment.

Revan wasn't sure what she was thinking. Even as his perceptions, and presence in the Force returned, he still couldn't sense past her mental shields. Revan's heart sunk. For a moment he felt like her Padawan again, unsure of his Master's thoughts or feelings, feeling as if he had somehow disappointed her. Kreia switched off her blade but otherwise remained motionless.

"A very interesting strategy my young friend," Kreia said finally beginning to turn towards him. The hood or her robe, which she always kept up, covered her white, sightless eyes. Revan could see only her lower face and even from that he could tell nothing of what lay beneath the surface. "Very interesting indeed."

"My apologizes Master," Revan stammered out. A part of him was ashamed at feeling so awkward. He was a Jedi Knight dammit! Why did he feel like a new apprentice who had just made a mistake? "It was an unfair move. I took advantage of your…your…."

"Blindness? Yes, and quite effectively too I'd say," Kreia said moving closer to her former pupil. Looking up slightly to gaze sightlessly into his face. It had always been an unnerving thing. "Had I been your true enemy, had my intention truly been to kill you, would you be apologizing now?"

"If you'd been a Sith…."

"Sith or Jedi, it doesn't matter. Those are merely titles, names that we use to comfort ourselves. The only difference between a Sith and a Jedi is that when Jedi kill, they don't do so with hate or joy in their hearts. Do not cloud the question with philosophical claptrap…merely answer," Kreia said slowly but forcefully. Revan took a moment to regain his composure and looked again into the blind white eyes of his former Master.

"Were you my enemy, and had this been a real battle, I would have done the same," he stated, wishing it had sounded more confident, more sure.

"Listen to me well my former apprentice: Never apologize for succeeding where another has failed. In combat someone will always have to succeed while another fails. The goal is to ensure that it will not be you that fails. You saw a weakness, and you exploited it. It has always been your particular talent to see the weakness in others, as well as the strength."

"But it took no skill. I found an easy way to win without having to actually utilize any of my lightsaber skills."

"And a lightsaber battle is now based only on lightsaber skills? If that were true, most combatants would have expired a long time ago. In battle a Jedi, or a Sith, must use whatever means they have at their disposal, and a Sith will not hesitate. There is no line drawn for them. As for whether or not it took any skill, I have never seen a new Jedi Knight perform such a feat. In fact, there are many Masters who would have been unable to accomplish what you just did. The test of combat is complete. You have succeeded, and I have failed, and let us leave it at that and talk of other things."

"Yes Master," Revan said bowing his head in deference, but deep in his heart the victory still rang hollow. He had done what he had to do, but it had been at the expense of someone he respected. Would he feel as hollow had the victory been over a real enemy, or would he have realized, as Kreia had said, that a Jedi must use whatever means they have at their disposal. Somehow he felt that some of the other Jedi Masters would not have approved of his technique.

Kreia began walking out of the dueling chamber and Revan fell into step behind her. It had been several years since Kreia had been his Master and he had had other Masters since her, but he could still remember following behind her in the same fashion as a newly appointed Padawan.

"So tell me my young friend, how does it feel to be a Jedi Knight?" Kreia asked without turning her head.

"It feels…good…I guess…."

"Is that all, I would have expected someone such as yourself to be a little more excited about such an event."

"Its not that I'm not excited, I am. Being a Jedi Knight is what I've wanted since I came to the Order. But at the same time it is something I always expected to happen. I felt it should always be, and sometimes I felt like my years as an apprentice were dragging along far too slowly…."

"Ah yes, you always did seem to chafe under the constraints of apprenticeship, always seeking to learn more," Kreia stated, a slight smile lifting her lips.

"It isn't that I didn't enjoy my time as an apprentice. I learned a lot, but sometimes it just felt like…."

"Like you had out-learned what your Masters had the capacity to teach. As if they no longer had anything left for you to learn from them. And did you feel this way under my tutelage?"

"No…no. Unfortunately you always kept me guessing. I never seemed to be on par with you. Even now I'm sure you have things yet to teach me."

"I am sure this is true as well, though I'd venture that you have things yet to teach me."

"Teach you? What could I teach you?" Revan asked confused.

Kreia stopped walking for a moment and looked ahead. A distant look came over her face and it seemed as if she were staring at something far beyond her.

"Of that, I am not yet sure…." Kreia said softly and left it at that. She continued walking and Revan followed. "So then tell me my young friend," She continued. "If you were so ready for Knighthood, why then do you seem to accept the promotion with a sense of foreboding?"

"I've been wondering that myself," Revan said ignoring the fact that once again Kreia had been able to put her finger exactly on Revan's state of mind. "I guess…maybe being a Jedi Knight isn't what I thought it would be."

"Just wait until your first true mission my former apprentice. Then you will realize that it is nothing at all like what you thought it would be."

At this it was Revan's turn to smile. The two, former Master and former Apprentice, walked in silence the rest of the way to the courtyard. The light from Dantooine's sun poured in on them and Revan watched the others walking to and from whatever duties they had, other Jedi…Knights, Masters, Padawans, and Younglings. In that moment everything was calm. Then the calm was shattered by a frantic rush of anxiety and Revan saw the source. His best friend, who was supposed to face his trials any day now in order to attain Knighthood, Malak burst through the courtyard and headed rapidly towards the Jedi Council chambers.

Revan had been friends with Malak since before they had even been accepted as Padawans. He was unsure what could have caused his friend to be in such a rush, but knowing Malak, and considering also that Malak was supposed to be filling in on communications monitoring while his Master consulted with the High Council on Coruscant on the matter of his Trials, it must have related to an urgent incoming message. As Malak disappeared into the Council chambers, Revan became aware of Kreia once more as she stepped in closer.

"I sense it too. Young Malak is quite disturbed. I get the impression that it is something important, very important indeed. Well…no matter, if it is to be our concern, it will be revealed to us before too long. Come along my young friend."


	7. Ch 4 An Unanswered Call to War Part I

**Author's Note:** Unlike in the game I have decided that Master Vandar will speak more like Yoda as I've always associated Yoda's speech patterns as a species trait rather than an individual trait (seeing as how the other member of the High Council of the same species, Yaddle, also spoke like Yoda). This is part one of Chapter Four.

Chapter Four: An Unanswered Call to War

Jedi Padawan Malak stood before the only two members of Dantooine's Training Enclave Council currently on planet, Master Dorak and Master Zhar Lestin. The other two, Masters Vrook Lamar and Vandar Tokare were currently on Coruscant where they also held seats as members of the Jedi High Council.

"Thank you for your expediency in coming to us with this message Padawan Malak," Master Zhar said. "You may return to the Communications Room."

"Yes Master Zhar," Malak said with his soft velvet voice and a reverent bow, and then the young man turned and left the chamber. He had just delivered to the two masters a message that had come in over the comm. lines mere moments ago. The message was from the High Council on Coruscant and had contained only the four words: Urgent! Council Eyes ONLY! True Malak could have informed the masters from the Comm. Room with the push of a button, but he had felt it better to deliver the message in person. This fact didn't escape the two older men's notice.

"That one seeks too much praise. His desire for notice is far too great," Master Zhar said looking after the departed Padawan.

"Why do you think he is such good friends with Revan? Amongst the Padawans here, his praise and notice are worth almost more than ours," Master Dorak said, the left corner of his mouth curling in a slight smile.

"Young Revan is another matter altogether," Zhar said with a slight shake of his head, which caused his lekku to jostle.

Master Zhar began to move towards the back wall of the Council Chamber and Master Dorak followed. At the wall Zhar depressed a hidden button and a panel slid aside to reveal a screen set into the wall. The Jedi stood still for a moment, Master Zhar's lekku twitched involuntarily, but that was the only visible sign that the Twi'lek Jedi Master was at all distressed. The High Council rarely sent out comm. messages marked urgent, and even more rarely did they ever send them to the Dantooine Enclave for rarely was there ever an emergency that required the immediate attention of the Training Academy. Whatever the message was, if they were receiving it here on Dantooine, it could only mean something that could be dire for all Jedi everywhere, and especially for the Jedi students who resided here.

Zhar leaned in closer to the screen and spoke into the voice pickup on the wall.

"Contact Coruscant care of the 'Old Folks Home', scramble priority Zhar One-One-Gamma," the master said speaking the code phrase that was required for any urgent message. It would ensure that he was connected directly to the High Council Chamber as quickly as possible on a private and scrambled channel.

"Connection established," the screen reported to Zhar. The master waited for the High Council to pick up at the other end, and before too long the blank screen was replaced by the wrinkled visage of Master Vandar. The small master's long pointed ears extended from the sides of his head to either side of the screen. His face was grave. _This must be bad_, Zhar thought to himself.

"Ah, Master Zhar. Very good it is to hear from you. Pleased, we are, that quickly you returned our call," The diminutive Jedi Master said in the odd speech patterns native to his species.

"It is good to hear from you as well Master Vandar, though I suspect that the reason for the call is not pleasant."

The respected master's face fell a little more and he let out a slight sigh. _This must be very bad indeed_, Zhar thought.

"An understatement, this is. Bad indeed, events are," he said as if reading Zhar's mind, which Master Vandar was quite capable of doing given his grasp of the Force. "With you, is Master Dorak?" he asked. Dorak stepped forward into the sight of the comm. screen so that Vandar could see him as well.

"I am here Master Vandar."

"Good. Concerns you as well, this matter does. Concerns all Jedi, it does. Received a communication from Republic Command, I have. Their ship, _Tatooine's Twins_, stationed in the Japrael Sector, reported, it has, of an attack on Onderon."

"An attack?" Dorak exclaimed. "By whom?"

"Returned, the Mandalorians have."

"Mandalorians?" Zhar was stunned. The Order had heard nothing from the Mandalorians in three decades. "The Mandalorians have no fleet. It was destroyed in the 'Great War'…wasn't it?"

"Destroyed or not, a new fleet they have, and pointed at Onderon it has been," Vandar said shaking his head in dismay. "Reported, _Tatooine's Twins_ has, that too late they arrived. Taken Onderon the Mandalorian's have, the Royal fleet, they now control. More ships, the Republic sent. Unable to stop the Mandalorians, they have been. Unable to stop part of the Mandalorian fleet from leaving the sector, they have been. Loose in the galaxy, the Mandalorians are. A holding battle, the Republic is engaged in at Onderon, both in space, and on the surface. For the help of the Jedi, the Republic has asked. Meet on Coruscant to discuss this, all Council members must. Informed of this, all Jedi Masters must be." The small master paused as if reflecting on something within. "A vision, I have had. This war, I have seen. Dark…dark times, the Republic is in for. Dangerous for all Jedi, this is. To Coruscant, you two must come."

* * *

Malak walked slowly across the Enclave courtyard lost in his thoughts. He knew intellectually that he should be hurrying back to his post in the Communications Room, but his mind was consumed by what had occurred over the last couple minutes. He had just left the two masters in the Council Chamber with their urgent message, and the experience had left him empty for several reasons.

He had thought that Masters Zhar and Dorak would be impressed by his devotion to duty, by the fact that he would take the time to hand deliver the message, by the fact that he felt it was so important as to trust it to no one but himself to relay to them, and yet they had appeared cold to him…indifferent. Could it have merely been the fact that it had been an urgent message and they had been concerned with its content? No, there seemed to be more to it than that. They seemed put off that HE had come with it. Or was it that he had come with it at all rather then merely contacting them via the comm. system? Malak was unsure. He sometimes felt so insecure among the Masters, even though he had grown up around them both, even taking instruction from them. He had even been Zhar's Padawan at one point. It seemed so often that the only Jedi that Malak did feel comfortable around was Revan. Revan seemed to understand him and the two had connected on some deeper level ever since they had met. And yet, Revan was always so far ahead of him. Revan was better at lightsaber combat, Revan had a greater command of the Force, Revan had become a Knight first while Malak was still a Padawan, Revan always pushed himself further and further, Revan always needed to learn more, and he always dragged Malak with him. Malak didn't always want to go as far as Revan, but Revan took him anyway, making him reach further then he would otherwise desire, and Malak could never say no to him.

Some of the other Padawans had tried to tell Malak once that Revan was merely using him. Malak didn't believe them. They were merely jealous. After all, it wasn't as if Revan was calling them his best friends. That was Malak's title and his alone.

Malak did sometimes feel as if he was always in the shadow of Revan, and with as powerful as Revan was, it was hard not to be. But if Malak couldn't be as good as Revan, he would at least be a close second, even if it meant riding on Revan's coat-tails. Malak knew in his heart of hearts that Revan would be the next great Jedi Master, and he also knew that whenever they said Revan's name, Malak's name would follow closely in everyone's minds. Malak just wished he could shake the feeling he got sometimes that Revan would be the death of him.

As if summoned by Malak's thoughts suddenly Revan was there. If Malak hadn't looked up just then he might have run right into Revan, as lost in thought as he was. As it was he had to stop short and almost stumbled.

"Whoa, Malak, are you okay?" his friend asked placing a hand on Malak's chest to steady him.

"Revan…I'm sorry my friend. I'm afraid I was a bit preoccupied."

"I can see that Malak," Revan paused for a moment looking his friend in the eyes. Malak suddenly felt uncomfortable under the intense scrutiny and turned away. "Malak, does this have anything to do with…whatever you were doing in the Council Chamber?"

Malak suddenly felt completely unsure. He had never felt this way around Revan, why was he so uncomfortable now? Then he realized that his discomfort stemmed from the other reason he had been so lost in thought. Somehow, seeing those four simple words on the screen _Urgent! Council Eyes ONLY!_ had left Malak with an uneasy feeling. Somehow it concerned him, though he couldn't imagine how a message for the Masters would have anything to do with a lowly Padawan. And yet, in his soul he felt certain about one thing, whatever this message really was about…it would change everything for him…everything. After a moment, Malak was finally able to meet his friend's eyes.

"Yes…something about the message…I don't know. I feel as if there is something important about to happen."

"What did the message say?"

"It only said "Urgent! Council eyes only", and yet…I just don't know…it is something I can't explain," Malak said shifting his eyes away again. Revan smiled and rested his hand on Malak's shoulder.

"Don't worry my friend. Master Kreia felt something too, and she couldn't be any more specific, and as she told me 'If it is to be our concern, it will be revealed to us before too long'."

"Of course my friend. It was just…unsettling somehow…."


	8. ch 4 An Unanswered Call to War Part II

**Author's Note:** This is part two of Chapter Four. I apologize if it isn't exactly stunning; I had a really hard time writing this part.

On Coruscant Master Vandar stepped away from the communications screen as the image of Masters Zhar and Dorak on Dantooine faded back into the nothingness of a blank monitor, and hobbled back to where the other members of the High Council waited for him. For thousands of years the Jedi High Council had stood as the guiding light for Jedi everywhere as they met in this room high atop the tallest spire in the great Jedi temple where thousands of Jedi lived and trained. They had the strongest connections to the Force, the greatest insight into its will. Among their numbers were the wisest decision makers, the sharpest tacticians, and the greatest warriors. They were what many Jedi aspired to be and they knew without a shadow of a doubt that no other Jedi would envy them the decision they now had to make.

It had been mere hours since word came from the Supreme Chancellor's office of the attack on Onderon by the Mandalorians, which had come as a surprise even to the Council as all knew the level of destruction the Mandalorians had faced in the war all those decades ago. They had been left without a fleet and though a body had never been found, many believe that Mandalore, the Mandalorian leader himself had been killed during the conflict. No one had ever thought it was possible that they would have been able to recover, and even if they had been able, no one would have imagined that they would try and take on the Republic again. Unfortunately, it would seem the Republic does not think as the Mandalorians do. Though the attack on Onderon had only occurred a short time ago, the Republic had already had two ships engage in the combat and had reassigned three more to head to that sector. Though the Supreme Chancellor and the Senate hadn't officially declared war, the Republic was desperate for the Jedi to step in as they had the last time.

Only half of the total twelve current members of the High Council were actually in attendance on Coruscant, the rest were scattered across the galaxy on various missions. Messages similar to the one sent to Masters Dorak and Zhar had already been sent to all Jedi Masters holding a seat on any of the many Jedi councils wherever they were in the galaxy. Thus far, only five had not responded and three of those were on particularly delicate missions that required them to maintain radio silence for extended periods of time. One Jedi Master could not be summoned at all, Master Tirith Nel had been aboard the _Tatooine's Twins_ when it had sustained heavy damaged from the Mandalorian flotilla. The High Council members had all felt his death in the Force.

Masters Vandar, Zez-kai Ell, Kavar, Vrook, Lonna, and Atris took their seats. Though it would still be several days before all the members of the Council would be able to join together and convene on the matter in full, there was much that needed to be discussed.

"In a hurry, the Republic is. To battle, the Jedi have been called," Vandar began.

"The Republic assumes too much," Master Atris chimed in. Her manner was as cold as her appearance and she had received the moniker "Hoth Queen" among younglings at the Temple. Her main function among the Jedi had been maintaining the Archives, a duty she had taken over from Kreia when Kreia had started taking Padawans again, and some speculated that she didn't know how to relate to something that wasn't in holorecord format. "The Order is not the Senate's task force to be ordered off to fight their battles for them."

"And yet the Order has sworn loyalty to the Senate and the Republic," Master Kavar contributed. "And, after all, the Jedi did assist the Republic military the last time the Mandalorians attacked. There is precedence for such an assumption."

"That was different Master Kavar and you know it," Master Vrook countered, "then it was a matter of former members of our own ranks influencing the Mandalorians."

"That is correct, and both Exar Kun and Ulic Qel-Droma are now dead, the Sith have been routed, none of their followers remain," Master Lonna Vash agreed. "This does not concern us."

"Concern us, it does. Greatly it concerns us. Concerns all Jedi, this matter does." The Master Vandar spoke the words in a far quieter and more reserved tone then his fellow Masters, yet all stopped and listened when the ancient Jedi spoke. "A vision, I have had. Dangerous, are the times ahead. The death of the Order as we all know it, my vision has shown me."

At that the other Masters fell deathly silent. The silence was like a scream cutting into all their hearts. It was finally broken by Master Atris.

"Well then, that settles it. If Master Vandar had a vision of the Order's destruction, the Republic will have to manage on their own."

"How do we know that staying out of the conflict won't be that which causes our downfall?" Master Zez-kai Ell finally spoke up.

"We are speaking of the Mandalorians, they can't have more then a handful of capital ships. This is going to be nothing more then a skirmish for the Republic in the end," Atris said.

"Tell that to Tirith Nel," Zez-kai said.

"Master Nel knew the risks of being a Jedi, as do we all," Master Vrook said, a touch of sorrow finding its way into his normally harsh and rough voice. He and Tirith Nel had been friends most of their lives, had gone on many missions together with their Masters as Padawans, and had even gone through their trials at the same time. Though it was a fact of life for Jedi, Master Vrook now regretted not getting to spend more time as adults with his friend, but regrets were not for Jedi and he quickly let them go.

"To fight, or stay our hands, more discussion this matter will take. Amongst all Masters, a decision must be reached, if the fate of the Order is at stake," Master Vandar interjected reminding the Masters that a decision would not be reached in this session. "Until then, involved the Jedi cannot be."

* * *

"They said what?" Admiral Caster Suul said in disbelief of what he had just heard uttered from the Supreme Chancellor's own mouth. Admiral Caster Suul was responsible for command over the entire Republic Navy. He, as well as General Miko Gran, who held command over the Republic Army and occasionally acted as subordinate to the Admiral, had gathered in the Supreme Chancellor's Office to decide on a plan of action. Two standard hours earlier the Senate had decided that they should deal with the Mandalorians with a "Policing Action" and had not openly declared war. After all, it wasn't as if the Mandalorians could really pose too much of a threat to the combined might of the Republic Army and Navy. None the less, a response was required. At this moment two Republic capital ships and three frigates were engaged with the Mandalorians who were entrenched at Onderon and the moon Dxun. As of yet they had been unable to deploy any ground troops. The _Tatooine's Twins_, which had been the first Republic vessel to engage the Mandalorians, was all but destroyed, and though the Republic forces had thus far managed to keep the Mandalorians busy, several ships, possibly even the majority of the Mandalorian fleet, of unknown designation had been able to leave the system before the brunt of the Republic ships had arrived. The most recent reports confirmed that the Mandalorians were now using Onderon's own Royal Fleet against the Republic forces. What the Republic now faced at Onderon was a battle of attrition; unfortunately, it was still far too early to determine which side was being worn down faster. Both Admiral Caster Suul and General Miko Gran had been hoping for word of Jedi assistance. Both knew that with only a handful of Jedi this little "disruption" would be solved in a matter of days without the need to reallocate anymore Republic resources. 

"The High Council of the Jedi has stated that at this moment they are unable to commit any of their number to the reclaiming of Onderon from the Mandalorians," Supreme Chancellor Daynn Gracus repeated. "The word came to me directly from Master Vandar himself."

"They are unable? Unable or unwilling?" General Miko Gran said turning away in disgust.

"They said unable," the Chancellor stated. "They gave the reason of needing to consult all the Jedi Masters in the Order."

"What do they need to consult ALL the Masters for? They are the bloody High Council...don't they hold dominion over the whole lot of them?" the Admiral stood and placed his hands on the Chancellor's desk, he could barely keep his anger in check. "It's not like we are asking for every man, woman, and child who can hold a lightsaber to go to Onderon. All we need is a handful, twenty at the most; hell, they could even give us apprentices!"

"I explained your request to them Admiral. This was their response. As you know I do not command the Jedi Order. I can make requests of them and I can consult them, but I cannot give them orders."

"I was under the impression that the Jedi served the Senate!" Admiral Suul almost yelled. "What is the point of having them around if they are not there when they are needed?"

"The Jedi serve the Republic, but in the end they govern themselves. If they feel there is a reason to not engage themselves in this matter at this time, then we must respect their decision."

"So they will commit themselves to conflict when it suits their needs, but when it is our needs at stake it is our problem?" General Gran had kept his seat, unlike the Admiral who was pacing like a caged maalraas, the Corellian Admiral was known for his hotheaded nature. Many wondered how he had managed to advance so far in his career with his temper, but the facts were the man knew his way around a space battle. He had been instrumental as a Republic Captain in the victory over the Mandalorians when Exar Kun had led them against the Republic three decades ago.

"There is no indication that that is their position General Gran, they merely stated that they could not commit themselves to this conflict until such time that they could confer with all the Masters of the Order," Chancellor Gracus, a long time proponent of the Jedi Order was unfortunately very used to defending their actions. He himself didn't quite understand why they were hesitant in this matter, but his experience told him that they knew things that were not always evident to others. "Please gentlemen, if we give them time things should become clear."

"Give them time?" Admiral Suul almost exploded. "GIVE THEM TIME? If we wait for them to get off their high and mighty rears we might as well give the Onderonians a primer for learning Mandalorian. No…if the _Jedi_ cannot be bothered to help us unless it is convenient for them, then we will take care of the Mandalorians ourselves." Admiral Suul turned and pointed a finger at the Chancellor. "Mark my words Daynn…if the Jedi cannot be trusted to assist us now, then it will only be a matter of time before they stab us in the back."

With that the Admiral stormed out of the office. With a sigh General Gran followed after bowing to the Chancellor. The Chancellor himself put his head in his hands.

"My dear Jedi friends, I do hope you will be able to justify yourselves in this matter," the Chancellor said to himself as he looked up at where the two commanders had departed, "for all our sakes."


	9. Ch 5 Sliver

**Author's WARNING:** This chapter contains a graphic battle sequence with descriptive violence. If you are underage or morally opposed to such descriptions, please do not read this chapter.

Chapter Five: Sliver

Revan was consumed by the darkness. It surrounded him like a thick blanket, at first comforting, then restricting. He couldn't see, couldn't think. At first Revan lashed out, fighting back at the obsidian cloak that strangled him but to no avail. Revan felt the panic begin to well up in his heart, hopelessness clouded his mind, fear grasped him by the throat. And just as Revan opted to break down and cry out, the black was split open by a sliver of red. A portal began to form in the darkness, bleeding crimson like a wound. Revan's fear and panic abated and he began to move towards the wound in the pitch.

Stepping through, Revan was momentarily flash blinded by the red. When his vision cleared he was in a room. He couldn't make out the details of the walls or of anything in the room, but he suddenly felt his was not alone. Turning back to where he had entered the room, Revan found that the passage that had allowed him access had disappeared. Instead he saw two men not that much older than himself. One had a strange marking on his forehead but both wore Jedi robes and both held a strange pyramid shaped device in their cupped hands between themselves. The two men were staring intently at the device and neither seemed to notice that Revan was even there.

As Revan moved closer to the two men he got a better look at the device they held. Suddenly he realized what he was looking at. Kreia had once told him about holocrons. These devices had been used for millennia by both Jedi and Sith to record teachings and some were even used for preserving the most powerful or arcane Force techniques. For the most part they were only reserved for Jedi Knights or Masters, and Revan had even heard that in the Jedi Archives in the Temple on Coruscant were kept Sith holocrons that could only be accessed by Jedi Masters, and even then most never looked at them. Kreia had claimed to have seen them when she was in charge of the Archives, but never said whether or not she had actually viewed what was recorded on them.

The two men seemed to be utterly entranced by the holocron, but as Revan came even closer they both looked up at him. There was almost a lustful look in their eyes, a look of desire. It was a look of ravenous hunger, a hunger for information for knowledge; a look Revan had had himself many times in his life. Revan understood then that all the knowledge they sought was in that holocron clutched in their hands. The first man, the one with the strange marking on his forehead began to speak to Revan.

"It is your turn next brother."

"Your destiny is arriving," the other man said.

"We are coming," the first man said.

"The Republic needs you…," the other man began.

Then the first man reached down to his belt. From it hung what looked like a lightsaber hilt, but it was far longer and more ornate than he had ever seen. The man took it from his belt and held it out vertically. Depressing an unseen activation plate, the lightsaber hummed to life, a blue blade shooting out first from one side, then from the other. Revan had heard about double-bladed lightsabers but had never seen one. They were frowned upon by the Masters as being too violent, too vicious. Their purpose was obvious. They were designed to get the most cutting surface per swing, and unlike their single blade counterparts, there was no mistaking this weapon as a tool that could be used for peaceful acts. This was a weapon engendered by the killing arts.

"…But you are not ready. Not yet!" The first man finished, and with a fluid motion he swung his duel-bladed lightsaber around and stabbed it through Revan's heart. Revan's mind exploded with pain. He tried to cry out but his voice failed him. White hot anguish consumed him and he became one with it.

And then, just a quickly as the blade had entered his heart, the pain was gone and Revan was whole again, himself again. Revan looked down at his chest but there was nothing there but his robes. But these weren't his robes. Revan was suddenly wearing black robes like he had never seen before, and there also seemed to be something odd about the way he was seeing things. Then Revan realized he was wearing some type of mask. He touched it with his black gloved hands and it felt smooth and covered his entire face.

Looking around then Revan saw that he was on a hillside over looking a plain. On this plain he saw soldiers in armor stretching out before him infinitely into the horizon. Across from them he saw a pathetic band of Republic citizens. Their weapons were antiquated and they had no armor. The mass of soldiers began to march on the Republic citizens, but before they could cross the plain completely, the Republic citizens began cowering and kneeing in supplication. They were giving up, and Revan could see in them nothing but weakness. Anger welled up in Revan's chest. He found himself hating the Republic citizens for their weakness. Why didn't they fight? Why didn't they stand up for themselves? Even if they died at the hands of the advancing soldiers, at least they would die fighting. The rage overtook Revan and he found himself Force-jumping down onto the battlefield. Suddenly his lightsabers were in his hands and ignited and he found that he could connect them in the middle to form his own double-bladed lightsaber.

Revan, his vision clouded by the red, began to cut down the armored soldiers. Their armor parted for his blades like butter being cut by a plasma-welder. He kept killing and they kept coming. The bodies began piling up around him, as his blades continued to spin and cut, rending arms and legs from torsos, heads from necks. And then, when it seemed as if the throng of soldiers would never end, Revan was done. Bodies in pieces laid scattered about him and his cloak was drenched in the blood of thousands, it dripped from his mask and hit the ground tapping out a steady rhythm.

Revan turned to the Republic citizens. They were still cowering, but one by one they began bowing to Revan, singing his praises and looking upon him as one looks upon the image of a god. Revan saw in them nothing but growing weakness. They had faced no challenge and were weaker for it. Their lives had been handed to them and all they could do with them was genuflect like religious sheep prostrating themselves before their deity.

Anger retook Revan's mind. Their weakness disgusted him in ways he could not have imagined. Then Revan was upon them, his blade cutting into yielding flesh. In a heartbeat they were dead, all of them, cut down like the soldiers though offering no fight at all. Then Revan was alone, standing in a sea of blood and bodies. And then Revan heard laughing.

Spinning around to face the source of the laughter, Revan saw another man covered in armor. This armor he recognized from a mission he had been on once with Kreia when he had still been a Padawan. He recognized the T-shaped visor in the helmet, this was a Mandalorian. The Mandalorian he had seen on his mission with Kreia had been nothing more than a mercenary, but he knew from his history lessons that they had once joined with some Dark Jedi against the Republic in the Great Sith War, but that they had been left without any resources for war by the Republic, shamed and scattered.

The Mandalorian before Revan now seemed neither shamed nor scattered, and appeared to be much more than a merc. The Mandalorian sat down in a throne and it was then that Revan noticed someone else in the shadows behind the Mandalorian. The figure itself was nothing more than a shadow, but Revan could see a dark smile on its face. The figure placed a black hand on the Mandalorian's shoulder and the Mandalorian began laughing again and in one hand he picked up the holocron the two men had held. Anger welled up in Revan once more, but before he could do anything the Mandalorian raised his blaster and fired. The bolt seemed to move faster than even Revan's Force-enhanced perceptions. Unable to move fast enough to deflect the bolt with his lightsaber, the bolt struck Revan in the heart and the pain returned to Revan's mind. Revan shouted.

* * *

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Revan sat bolt upright in his bed. Sweat poured down his face and his body was shaking uncontrollably. All Revan could hear was the sound of his ragged breathing and the racing of his heart. Then he heard something else. His sleeping quarters' door chime activated, and Revan realized it had been going for a while.

Revan composed himself and pulled on his tunic and pants. Walking over to the door he depressed the door activation panel and the door slid open to reveal Kreia.

"Master?" Revan said in confusion, still trying to catch his breath.

"You seem distressed my young friend," Kreia looked at Revan with sightless eyes, but her features betrayed a concern that most never received from the older woman.

"It…it's nothing Master. Just a dream…nothing more," Revan said avoiding her gaze.

"Sometimes a…dream…can be a herald of the Force, especially for those of us so sensitive to it," Kreia said, her features once again concealing her feelings.

"I haven't been prone to visions before Master; I don't see why the Force would deem to send me one now."

"Many things of the Force are at best…perplexing," Kreia said stepping into the sleeping quarters.

"And at the worst?" Revan asked trying to break the tension he still felt in his chest with a little humor.

"Downright confusing," Kreia returned once more looking at her former Padawan. "Though I did not come here to analyze your 'dreams'."

"Why did you come Master?" Revan asked suddenly realizing that it was still early in the morning and Revan had not expected a visit from his former Master today.

"Master Zhar and Master Dorak have informed the Masters here at the Enclave that we are needed on Coruscant. I have come to let you know I will not be available for our next lightsaber match."

"Needed on Coruscant? What for?"

"It was not made completely clear my young friend, but from what I do understand, there has been an attack by the Mandalorians."

"What kind of an attack by the Mandalorians would warrant all the Jedi Masters on Dantooine to have to go to Coruscant?" Revan asked.

"Not just the Masters on Dantooine, my former apprentice," Kreia said running her fingers along a small statue the Revan kept on the desk in his quarters. The statue was the only thing Revan had from his home planet. He realized that some of his Masters hadn't approved. After all, Jedi were not supposed to have any ties to their former lives outside the Order, but Revan had never understood that rule, and he felt he never would. Kreia turned to look at Revan once more before continuing. "All the available Masters in the Order have been called back to Coruscant. I feel, my young friend, that this matter is quite dire."

Revan thought about this for a moment. The recent feeling of pain in his heart from the dream blaster bolt flared up for a moment. Something about this whole thing touched Revan with fear, but pushed it down into the depths of himself from whence it came.

"Well, I guess we can always reschedule our match for when you come back," Revan said changing the subject.

"I'm afraid our regular interaction will no longer be a luxury we can rely on. You are a Jedi Knight now Revan, not a Padawan. You have no real home anymore I'm afraid. Soon the High Council will assign you a mission and you will find that it may be many years before you get a chance to come back here to Dantooine. A Jedi's life is always in motion, in more ways than one." Kreia began walking back to the door of the sleeping quarters. She turned back to Revan and once more gazed into his eyes with blind eyes. "I have…truly valued our time together my dear friend. You were one of my greatest students, and I would like to say…one of my dearest friends."

Kreia graced Revan with one of her rare full smiles. Revan had only ever seen it once before in his life. He had been a youngling of six, years before Kreia had even taken him as her Padawan. He had been running through the Training Enclave chasing a younger female who was at that time chasing young Malak. Malak had accidentally knocked over a rather large tower of blocks the girl had been constructing while Revan and Malak had been play lightsaber dueling with some sticks they had found and their battle had gotten a little out of control.

Revan had tripped over his feet during the chase and landed on the hard duracrete ground, skinning his knees and tearing his pants. He had sat there for a moment just staring at his bloody knees, and in the meantime Malak and the girl had gotten further away. Kreia had observed the whole thing and came over to the young Revan.

"_Are you hurt?"_ she had asked kneeing down to Revan's level. Revan looked at her and then back at his knees. He hadn't even started crying.

"_I guess so, but I don't know what to do,"_ Revan had said. He had sounded slightly confused, as if he should be reacting a certain way, but wasn't sure how. It was then that Kreia had graced him with her smile. It had lasted only a short moment, but it was quite clear to Revan.

"_You are quite strong my young friend, but I think we should get you to a healer to tend to those knees,"_ she had said taking Revan by the hand and lifting him to his feet.

"_But what about Malak? That girl is chasing him,"_ Revan said trying to see where his friend had gone to.

"_Do not worry about young Malak and Bastila, that matter will sort itself out on its own. Come now my young friend,"_ Kreia had said taking Revan by the hand to the infirmary.

Revan would learn later that the girl Bastila had fallen herself, skinning her knees as well. Unlike Revan, Bastila had cried until Malak, realizing that he was no longer being chased had turned and gone back to the young girl. Malak had comforted Bastila and taken her to the infirmary as well. Revan had spent the entire time the two were there glaring at young Bastila, and Bastila had matched him glare for glare.

The smile on the face of the Kreia in the here and now had faded as quickly as back then. Revan wasn't quite sure what to say. So many thoughts and emotions swarmed him like stingerflies.

"Thank you Master Kreia. I…just hope that I will be able to justify your training," Revan settled on. "Of all my masters I will actually miss being your Padawan, though I won't miss some of your more…perplexing training sessions."

It was Revan's turn to smile. His smile faded quickly too as something stirred in his chest. After a pause Revan looked again at Kreia.

"Master, I think I should join you."

"I am no longer your Master Revan, nor have I been for a while now nor has the Council summoned you to Coruscant. For what reason would you join me?"

"I just…I just feel that is were I must go. And besides, as you said I am a Jedi Knight now, and as the Council has not sent me on my first mission, there is no reason that I shouldn't be able to go to Coruscant."

Kreia lowered her hooded head and thought about this for a moment and then turned to leave Revan's quarters.

"If you are to join me, you must gather your things quickly. My transport will be leaving in one hour." And with that Kreia left Revan in his quarters.

**Author's Note:** Sorry this one took so long. I'm afraid I'm suffering from an extreme case of writer's block. I'm going to put this story on a slight hiatus until I can get back into the flow of things. I apologize to anyone who actually reads this :-)


	10. Ch 6 A Life Left Behind

**Author's Note:** Sorry for the wait on this chapter. I had a very hard time writing this one. I didn't much care for the second half of it, but felt it was something I wanted to try and work with.

Chapter Six: A Life Left Behind

There hadn't been much to "collect" as far as Revan's things went. After he had finished getting dressed and had pulled his hooded outer robes on, Revan had grabbed his lightsaber and had clipped it to his belt. He tried very hard to ignore the impression that the hilt suddenly felt a little too small in his hand.

Revan then took a moment and looked around at what had been his sleeping quarters for a good portion of his life. Even when he had been taken as a Padawan Learner by Kreia, and they would be assigned to go off-planet on a mission, he had always felt that he would be able to return here to "his room" to flop down on "his bed" to rest. Looking around however, Revan realized that it wasn't really "his" bed after all. Like everything else in this room except for the clothes on his back, his lightsaber, and the small statue sitting on the table, everything in this room, as well as the room itself, belong to the Jedi. Jedi didn't have personal possessions, or at least they weren't supposed to. Now that he was finally leaving Dantooine as a Jedi Knight, and wasn't even sure when he might return, or if he would be able to return at all, there was no guarantee that this room would be available to him again. More than likely it would be assigned to another youngling, as it had been to him when he had first come here, and as it had been long before he had even been born.

Looking at the one possession he did have besides his lightsaber, Revan grabbed a small carrying case and gently placed his small statue inside. Though any other Jedi would have left this planet with nothing more then their lightsaber, Revan would not leave behind his one and only link to the homeworld he didn't even remember in a room that had never been his to begin with.

Carrying case in hand Revan left the sleeping quarters. By the time he reached the courtyard Revan had already left Dantooine behind in his mind. The place that had been his home base for as far back as he could remember was no longer so, and a part of him knew he would not miss it. The galaxy was now his to explore, not as a Padawan, but as a Knight.

With this established firmly in his mind, Revan's thoughts turned to the one person whom he would miss. Sadly this was the same person he had failed to consider in all this. He hadn't spoken with his friend Malak since the previous day, and while this in and of itself wasn't unusual, it seemed that so much had changed in Revan since then, and somewhere along the way, Malak had been forgotten.

Guilt flooded Revan's heart. Malak was his best friend, why had he not thought of him sooner. Odder still was the fact that when Revan had mentally left Dantooine behind him, he hadn't left Malak behind with it. In a way it was as if Revan had taken Malak with him.Revan quickly pushed the guilt down into the small area of his stomach where he kept all his emotions that were "un-Jedi-like". He still had time before Kreia's transport left for Coruscant; he would find Malak and tell him what had happened. Though it was short notice, Revan would say his farewells to his lifelong friend. Malak would understand.

Then, as if conjured by Revan's thoughts of him, Malak was suddenly entering the courtyard. A broad smile lit his face as he made eye contact with Revan and began to stride purposefully towards his friend. Revan suddenly felt worse. Obviously Malak was happy about something, and Revan would be forced to bring him down with bad news. There was nothing to be done about it now unfortunately. As Malak reached the spot where Revan was standing his smile widened, threatening to cut his face in two.

"You seem in a good mood my friend," Revan said bracing himself for what he had to say. Forcing a smile to his lips that didn't touch his eyes, Revan tried to make light of his friend. "What happened, did the serving droids give you an extra helping of Yamru melon with your breakfast?"

"Very clever my friend, but you won't be able to damper my mood today," Malak said. Revan was sure his smile would reach all the way around to the back of his head at this point.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. Listen…Malak…there's something I…."

"Me first," Malak said interrupting his friend. "I have to tell someone the good news!"

"Very well Malak," Revan said with a sigh. "What is your good news?"

"I just received a communication from my Master Thaa on Coruscant. She told me that the High Council has agreed that I am ready for the Trials. I am to find passage to Coruscant because the Council is insisting she remain there for some reason."

Surprise hit Revan like a charging Bantha. Maybe the fact that he hadn't thought of how his leaving would affect Malak wasn't so odd after all.

"That is great news Malak, congratulations!" Revan said suddenly feeling better about things.

"So what were you going to tell me?" Malak said, curiosity creeping into his voice.

"It would seem I will be accompanying you off-planet. Master Kreia is leaving for Coruscant as well, and I've asked to go with her."

"Wow…that's an amazing coincidence," Malak said as a perplexed look crossed his face.

"Now Malak," Revan said with a grin. "You know there is no such thing as coincidence…"

"…There is only the Force," the two young men said in unison, parroting countless Jedi Masters. The smile returned to Malak's face.

"Do you think Kreia will mind if I join the two of you?" Malak asked.

"I can't see why she would," Revan replied. "Though her transport leaves shortly. If you are going to come with us, you must hurry."

"I am ready now my friend," Malak said grinning at Revan.

The two friends made their way to the landing platform. As they walked Revan couldn't help but wonder at what had just occurred. Though they joked about the assertion of the Masters, Revan himself had never given much credence to coincidence, but if it was only the Force guiding them all together to Coruscant, what did it mean? Revan found himself feeling very unsettled suddenly as they neared the landing platform.

* * *

Jedi Padawan Bastila Shan leaned against the wall of the corridor leading to the landing platform. She wasn't sure why she had come or why she was standing here. She felt as if she were hiding in the shadows, like a common stalker. But that was ridiculous. She was a Jedi, and yet a part of her was very ashamed of herself for being here.

She hadn't been told the details, no Padawan or Youngling had. All she knew was what they all knew by this time; all the Jedi Masters currently on Dantooine, including her own, were departing the Enclave for Coruscant. This was unheard of naturally since, as a Training Enclave, there were supposed to be Masters here at all times. Even stranger was the fact that all of the Padawans currently apprenticing with a Master, including Bastila herself, were being left behind. In fact only one Padawan was leaving Dantooine and that was Malak, and that was why Bastila was here, among the shadows.

Bastila had gained this information from Palin Aquista, a Chadra-Fan Padawan who was notorious for being an accomplished gossip. Palin had been sitting in the courtyard when Revan and Malak had met there to discuss Malak's trip to Coruscant to face his Trials and the fact that Revan had asked his former Master Kreia to be allowed to join her on the trip. Neither Revan nor Malak had noticed that Palin was there, something that tended to help her in her quest for the latest gossip. Normally Bastila would never condone nor engage in something so very improper and un-Jedi-like, but when Palin had mentioned that it had to do with Malak, she discovered that she was listening in spite of herself. Two minutes later she was standing in the shadows and she didn't know why.

Bastila had first become truly aware of Malak when they were mere Younglings. Bastila herself had arrived at the Dantooine Enclave only two years earlier. She was still having a difficult time being away from her father, and overcoming the hatred she felt towards her mother for sending her away. The Masters had tried to console her, to tell her that she must let these emotions go, that they were dangerous things for a Jedi to feel.

She didn't get along with the other Younglings. They seemed to have fun playing together and running around together. Bastila kept to herself, played by herself, and ate by herself. She would see the others point at her and whisper. Bastila was a very miserable Youngling despite the fact that she excelled at everything she did.

Then one day she was building a tower out of some blocks. Without thinking about it she had been nudging some of the blocks into more complicated positions with the Force. Then out of nowhere this boy had fallen into her tower knocking all the blocks across the floor. That had been the final straw for young Bastila. In a fit of anger she had started chasing the boy. They had run through half the Enclave before she had tripped and fell, skinning her knees. In frustration and pain she had started crying. Suddenly the boy had been standing above her with a concerned look on his face. He had helped her up and had taken her to the Infirmary. He had left after speaking briefly with another boy that had also been taken to the Infirmary for skinned knees. The entire time she had been there the other boy had glared at her as if she were a Wampa. She had glared right back at him.

Later she would learn that the young boy who had knocked over her tower was named Malak and his glaring friend was named Revan. She had never properly thanked Malak for helping her to the Infirmary, but then again, a part of her felt that if he hadn't been so clumsy as to knock over her tower in the first place, she wouldn't have been chasing him and therefore wouldn't have fallen and hurt herself. Another part of her would remind her that a Jedi accepts responsibility for their actions and that a Jedi does not place the blame on others. In Bastila these parts were constantly at odds, and this fact drove her quite to distraction.

Even after the whole matter, Malak never really paid any attention to Bastila. Occasionally she would say hello as they passed, a couple times she even offered her assistance when she saw him struggling with one aspect of his Force training or another. Each time he would give her a confused look, nod his head, and more or less go on with whatever he had been doing not paying her any more mind.

This might have annoyed or discouraged a normal girl, but Bastila, as a Jedi, kept such feelings at bay. She actually wasn't sure why she would even care whether or not Malak noticed her or paid any attention to her. And yet here she was, waiting.

She saw the two friends walking her way and she stood a little away from the wall. The two boys hadn't noticed her yet. Then Malak looked up and saw her, that confused look crossing his face. Revan noticed and he too looked up to see what Malak was looking at. Rather than confused, Revan actually looked marginally perturbed.

"Bastila," Revan said as if he were commenting on the corridor wall, instead of the female standing by it.

"Hey Bastila," Malak said, sounding as confused as he looked. "Uh…what are you…you know…doing here?"

"I…uh…I heard that the Masters were leaving for Coruscant and I wanted to see mine off. Nothing strange about that…is there?"

"No…I suppose not," Malak said. "But…why are you waiting here? Shouldn't your Master already be with the ship?"

"Yes well…what are you doing here?" Bastila said trying to avoid the direction the conversation was moving in. She wasn't quite sure why she was pretending that she didn't already know why Revan and Malak were there.

"My Master has summoned me to Coruscant. I'm to face my trials," Malak said unable to keep the smile out of his voice.

"Oh…congratulations! And how nice that Revan decided to see you off." Bastila said turning a condescending gaze in Revan's direction.

"Actually, _Bastila_," Revan said saying her name as if doing so was an annoyance in and of itself, "some of us don't have to get approval to leave planet anymore." Revan walked past Bastila and kept walking towards the landing platform. Almost as an afterthought he called back. "I guess you'll find that out…you know…someday."

"Don't mind him Bastila," Malak said. "He's just…well…Revan." And with that Malak followed after his friend.

"Yes well," Bastila said to herself, "wouldn't it be splendid if he weren't." And then Bastila left the corridor and headed back to the Enclave. She felt as if she had accomplished nothing but embarrassment for herself. After all…Malak hadn't even said goodbye.


	11. Ch7 Resistance at All Cost

**Author's Note: This chapter will be broken up into smaller parts as well. Sorry this took so long, I wasn't in a writing mood. Hope it was worth the wait…**

Chapter Seven: Resistance at All Cost

General Vaklu had been walking along the secret corridor for the last hour and a half. The corridor led from the military command post down one kilometer underground then became a long shaft that ran right underneath the palace and ten kilometers out at a slight incline leading just outside the Great Wall. Vaklu now stood at what was supposed to be the way out. A decimeter thick durasteel door stood before Vaklu at a slant. It opened out just on the other side of the Great Wall right at ground level...that is…when it actually opened. Vaklu had hit the activation plate five times now only to get an electronic buzz and the slight grinding noise of locked gears.

Vaklu had just expected the door to open even though this escape route hadn't been used since the days long before the Beast Wars. Apparently it hadn't been maintained over the decades and now might as well be an impenetrable shield between General Vaklu and his freedom.

Vaklu hit the door with his fist out of frustration and immediately regretted it as a sharp pain cut through is hand and up his arm. His mind racing Vaklu looked around what might very well become his tomb. Just before panic could set in he remembered something he had noticed when he had first come across the schematics for this corridor while looking through his predecessor's personal files after he had taken over the position of General of the Onderonian Royal Military. Rushing back the way he came he covered two kilometers before finding what he was searching for. There, set into the wall just over two meters up, was the air shaft Vaklu had remembered. The air shafts were set every two kilometers to facilitate at least a modicum of air flow, especially in situations where there were large numbers of people traversing the passageway. The air shaft was just big enough for a man to squeeze through, even one who possessed the slight gut that Vaklu had acquired over years of high ranking service. If he remembered correctly, the air shaft rose in a steep incline to the surface and ended in a vent that should be easily removed. The only possible problem was in the fact that the vent ended inside the Great Wall, which meant he could potentially be faced either with debris from the attack covering the vent, or a squadron of Mandalorians scouting for survivors. Fortunately even if this shaft didn't yield a viable exit, there were still four others along the corridor to try.

Vaklu hadn't yet formulated a plan for how he would then managed to escape Iziz once he did find a way out of this poor excuse for an escape tunnel, but at the moment survival was first and foremost on his mind. Hoisting himself up into the air vent, General Vaklu began the lengthy climb to the surface.

* * *

First Lieutenant Holden Yiim of the ORM had been staring at the enemy blockade at the base of the Sky Ramp for the last three hours and thirty-four minutes trying, desperately, to find any indication of a weak spot, some point which he could infiltrate. It was maddening. The enemy didn't seem to have weak spots. They were like droids with their precision and attention to even the most minor of details. Five soldiers were at the post at all times. Whenever there was a shift change the replacement soldiers would take position behind the departing shift and be on guard before the departing shift left. At no point was there any communication of any kind between shifts…not even so much as a nod or a greeting. 

So far the weakest point was whenever a squad of Mandalorians would come or go. The squad would approach the Sky Ramp and immediately the two guards on either side of the Ramp entrance would move to flank the squad, their blaster rifles at attention. The remaining guard would salute the commanding officer of the squad and move aside to let them pass.

Lieutenant Yiim had no delusions that they were merely letting anyone in Mandalorian armor pass. He was willing to bet that they had some indication or some kind of device that transmitted identification and maybe even orders between the Mandalorians so he scratched the idea of merely trying to capture Mandalorian armor and sneaking into a squad formation.

The only thing Lieutenant Yiim had discovered in the last couple hours was that the duracrete rubble he was sitting on was very hard and not at all comfortable. Of course that wasn't a problem for him. Yiim considered himself a real soldier, not one of the pomp and regalia types that seemed to make up the ORM. He would sit in this spot for another three hours, or another three hundred hours if that's what it took. Unfortunately that wasn't very conducive to finding a way to turn this situation around.

When the Mandalorians had attacked a day and a half ago, it had been fast and brutal. Holden in a small way had to concede that it was carried out masterfully and that he was impressed. Their precision was amazing and their execution was flawless. They had played on the almost inherent Onderonian aversion to cultural change in relation to the rest of the galaxy, an aversion that was based on a xenophobia that seemed to lie just below the surface of every Onderonian. They also played on the fact that not an Onderonian alive believed that they would ever see a Mandalorian threat again. No one except First Lieutenant Yiim.

After the last time the Mandalorians had attacked Onderon, and had subsequently been beaten back so effectively, the Onderonian people saw themselves, in some respect, as impregnable to outside attack and they saw the Mandalorians as so little a threat as to not warrant attention. The Onderonian military rarely attributed the successful repelling of the Mandalorians to the large assistance given by both the Republic and the Jedi, though Yiim knew that the Queen herself was a great supporter of the Jedi, and even had close friends among their Order.

While Holden had been alert and able to snap into action at the first sign of an attack, the rest of Iziz was truly caught off guard, which was obvious by the sluggish manner in which the rest of the military assembled opposition to the attack. Even Yiim's commanding officers had been taken by surprise, but Yiim hadn't. Deep in the back of his mind he had, in some small way, known this would happen someday.

Holden's grandfather Duram Yiim had served the ORM as a Major during the first attempted made by the Mandalorians against Onderon. Major Yiim had been much like Lieutenant Yiim in many ways as far as his attention to soldiering was concerned. Major Yiim was a man's man and a soldier's soldier. Tough, competent, and slated for quick ascension through the ranks. In the close to twenty years that Duram Yiim had served in Her Majesty's Armed Forces he had gone from being a mere Enlisted man, just a Private, to being a fully commissioned Major, something that, for the ORM was rarely heard of. Usually the only Majors found in the ORM had started out already with their commission as Second Lieutenants. As such, Duram Yiim was well respected amongst his peers and subordinates. When the Mandalorians attacked, Major Yiim fought tooth and nail with the Republic and the Jedi while many of his compatriots cowered in their quarters. He retired from service shortly thereafter, a Hero of Onderon!

As was the case with most serious career military men, Duram Yiim had always hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps, maybe even attain a higher rank then he had. Holden's father, Gran couldn't have possibly turned out to be more of a disappointment to his father's dreams if he tried. Gran Yiim had always been very meek as a child. He hated confrontation and had a very delicate and tender demeanor. Gran Yiim was a very, very big disappointment to his father. No matter what Duram did to try and "toughen" up his son it seemed Gran only moved further from the path his father had taken, the path his father had hoped for him. Gran openly protested the Onderonian Military, despite the fact that it wasn't much of a military presence to begin with. He considered himself an "intellectual" and felt that military mentality was barbaric, a thing of the past that was beneath the "modern enlightened" of which he considered himself a member.

When Holden was born Gran had hoped he would follow in his footsteps, that he would go to university and study philosophy and higher thinking. Holden proved to be as big a disappointment to Gran as Gran had to Duram. Even at a very young age it was obvious to all that Holden was meant for military life. He was brave and sure and spent a couple nights every week with his grandfather bivouacking just outside the Great Wall of the city, something even the bravest citizens of Iziz would never think to do. Holden was also a distinguished member of the Royal Scouts and quickly surpassed all the other scouts in Maalraas Troop. Duram Yiim taught his grandson to shoot his rifle and Holden was only ten when he shot and killed his first maalraas. Unfortunately Holden's bravery had the occasion to get him into trouble such as the time Holden talked his four best schoolmates into sneaking outside the Great Wall with him. Holden "appropriated" his grandfather's rifle from its place of honor above Duram's hearth and the five friends set out. Sneaking past the Great Wall without authorization or supervision wasn't an easy task, but Duram had taught Holden all about stealthy movement and infiltration and Holden had been a very quick study and an apt pupil.

Within moments of leaving the city behind, Holden and his friends were set upon by a boma. The beast managed to knock Holden over before the young man was able to raise his grandfather's weapon. The boma then turned on Holden's friends. In a flash Holden was on his feet and lunging for the hungry creature. The fight was very uneven and for all intents and purposes Holden shouldn't have lasted long but suddenly the boma let out a pained roar and fell away, Holden's scout knife sticking out from between its ribs. When Holden's four shaken friends ran back to the Wall the city guards had hauled Holden in and called his parents to pick him up. Gran yelled at his son for hours, and then yelled at his father for being such a poor influence on his son. Though Duram outwardly held a disapproving face, Holden knew that inside his grandfather was proud of him. From there it was only a matter of waiting until he was of legal age to defy his father and join the ORM. In the two years since then Duram had not spoken a word to his son and Holden figured he never would again.

Another ten minutes had passed of Holden staring at the blockade as if by merely looking at it he could will the Mandalorians to break formation. Finally Holden gave in and moved deeper into the rubble he was using to remain hidden. The debris had once been part of a shop of some kind and Holden had to step over small piles of children's toys and the occasional bits of produce. He had had enough presence of mind to grab the odd loaf of bread or vegetable, after all, he couldn't be sure when he would next be able to replenish his rations, if such a time would ever come.

Continuing forward Lieutenant Yiim suddenly felt a slight stirring of air on his pants and looked down. At his feet was a vent of some sort, about the size of a large man. Holden bent down and examined the vent cover, removing some debris that was blocking it. Using his utility knife he removed the cover and began examining the air shaft to see if it might be useful as a hiding place. It could even lead to another part of the city; maybe he could use it as a route to get around unobserved.

Putting his palm above the opening Holden noticed that the air coming from the shaft was cold and dank, to Holden this indicated that the shaft led very deep underground. Picking up a small crumbled piece of duracrete Holden tested this by dropping it into the shaft. He listened closely as it slid down what sounded like a steep incline but didn't hear it hit bottom before he could no longer hear it at all. Too deep then. It was unlikely that the shaft would be of too much purpose, but Holden made a mental note to return and investigate it at length later on.

Pushing himself back onto his feet, Holden pressed on. He kept his blaster rifle close and his senses alert for even the slightest change to his surroundings. Lieutenant Yiim hadn't made it more than four meters when he heard a shuffling noise behind him accompanied by soft grunting sounds. Lieutenant Holden Yiim spun on his heel bringing his rifle up in front of him and prepared himself for an attack.


	12. Ch 7 Resistance at All Cost Part II

**Author's Note: This is Part Two of Chapter Seven.**

The first air shaft had failed to provide a way out. General Vaklu had managed to make it to the top only to find that the vent grating had been smashed in by a chunk of duracrete debris which remained lodged in the opening like a cork in a bottle. Climbing down the shaft had taken him twice as long as climbing up in order to avoid slipping and taking the long tumble back down to the escape corridor.

When he had finally made it down the shaft the General decided to make camp and rest for a while. He had been engaged in several hours of constant and strenuous action which he was not in the slightest bit used to, after all, it had been years since he had been forced to do PT. Too many years behind a desk or observing maneuvers or the occasional Unification Day Parade had softened away what little level of fitness Vaklu had possessed in his younger days. Silently Vaklu vowed to himself that if he made it out of this, he would maintain some semblance of a proper physique less this kind of thing was to come up again. In any case soldiers seemed to respect a General more if he wasn't fat.

Vaklu settled down and found himself drifting quickly into sleep. Before he knew it he was jostled awake again. There was a slight crick in his neck and his back was slightly stiff from lying on the hard ground of the tunnel, but other than that, Vaklu felt far better rested. Looking at his chrono however he was very disappointed to realize that he had slept for almost an entire day. Who knew what shape Iziz was in now? Had the Republic finally arrived to beat back the enemy? Was he considered dead by his men? If he suddenly showed up again would they find out that he had disserted?

The General pushed himself up and stretched himself out calming his worried mind as he worked out the kinks in his muscles. He would find a way to the surface and then he would find a way to spin the situation to where he still looked like the hero of the day…maybe even the gallant leader who managed to beat back death itself! The first step was to find a way out of this cursed tunnel however.

Vaklu moved two more kilometers down the tunnel to the next air shaft. A climb up this one revealed more debris. Back down and two kilometers more Vaklu made an attempt at the third. He reached the top of this one to find a pair of boots standing above the grated vent cover. A quick look at the boots told him they were not Onderonian, and the rapid sound of Mandalorian told him not only that they were not the boots of a Republic soldier, but that at the very least the Mandalorians had managed to maintain a presence in Iziz. Vaklu climbed down very quietly hoping he wouldn't be discovered.

Vaklu walked defeated and tired to the final air shaft. He wasn't too confidant in this one since all the rest had proved failures but also because this one would be the closest to the palace and so the most likely to have Mandalorians in the vicinity. None-the-less he climbed and as he reached the surface he noticed that the light coming down into the air shaft from the vent wasn't as bright as it had been with the others. Vaklu checked his chrono and verified that it should still in fact be quite bright outside. He had been sure that all of these vents were located in open spaces, but the light that filtered down into the shaft was shaded and dim as if the opening was inside a structure, but not quite the level of darkness that Vaklu had come to associate with debris blocking the entrance.

Vaklu finished his climb and sure enough there was light, though dim, coming through the grating. He listened closely for any hint of soldiers nearby and when he was sure that the coast was clear, Vaklu started trying to manipulate the grate. Hope sunk away from the General however when he realized that while the vent wasn't entirely blocked by debris as the first two had been, there was still debris and it just happened to be resting in the worst possible place for him to be able to open this grate from his side.

Defeated, Vaklu began to quietly descend again. His only chance now was to try and climb back up the passage to the command center and hope that exit hadn't been blocked. If, however, the Mandalorians had in fact been completely successful in their attack and the palace, and Vaklu had very little doubt of that, he would quickly be captured and possibly killed. A slow death trapped by his own cowardice, or a quick one at the hands of the enemy. Neither option appealed much to him.

Once Vaklu had made his way down halfway he began to hear noises in the distance. At first he feared that the Mandalorians had found his escape route and were coming to search for survivors down here, until he realized that the noises were coming from above not below. Concentrating on them now, Vaklu realized that the sound was that of grating being removed. Somehow the vent cover was being removed from the air shaft! Cautiously Vaklu began to climb again. Soon the sound stopped and there was silence again. Vaklu paused for a moment and when he heard nothing further he continued.

He had only gone a meter when a small chunk of duracrete fell from above, hitting him on the head. Vaklu stifled a yelp despite the sharp spike of pain that now coursed through his skull. There was no telling who might hear him if he yelled out. Vaklu hung there in the shaft again waiting and listening. He still didn't hear anything and after a while decided to risk it.

Climbing the rest of the way General Vaklu saw that the grating had in fact been removed. The question was, by whom? Carefully he pushed his head through the opening. It was very dim up here and Vaklu realized that the reason was due to the fact that he was surrounded by large chunks of debris, what must have at one point been walls the had been blown down. He couldn't see more than a couple meters ahead because of the lack of light, but he couldn't see anyone around so he continued his climb out. It was tough going and he was grunting a lot with the strain.

Halfway out of the vent the General heard the unmistakable sound of a blaster rifle being cocked and powered up. Too late Vaklu realized that someone had been here all along, possibly laying in wait for him to emerge and seal his doom. Panicked Vaklu dropped out of the vent and cowered to the ground.

"Please, please don't kill me…I-I'll give you anything you want! Just let me live! I can be of use!" the pleading words flowed like water from his lips without him even thinking about them. Vaklu was stopped short however when he heard something he hadn't expected to hear. The sound of the blaster rifle being powered down followed by a confused but confident voice.

"General Vaklu?" the voice said.

Vaklu looked up and now could see the man who had spoken in the dim light. He couldn't make out features but it was clear that the man was standing at attention and saluting.

* * *

Lieutenant Holden Yiim wouldn't have been surprised by almost anything, except what he saw before him now. A three legged maalraas could have come crawling out of the air shaft and Holden wouldn't have even batted an eyelash, but he never would have guessed he would be looking right at the highest ranking officer of the ORM. He had been quick on the draw and had trained his blaster rifle on the figure automatically. A beat later and he would have fired, but he held back at the initial site of the Onderonian Military uniform on the figure. A second glance and he realized that it was a command officer's uniform, and with a squinting gaze through the dimly lit space he had made out the features that were recognized anywhere on Onderon. The voice had confirmed it. 

Lieutenant Yiim had ignored, with much difficulty, the whining pleas of his superior officer. He rationalized it away as a byproduct of stress. Who knows what the General had to do to get away from the Mandalorian attack. No matter the reason for it however, General Vaklu was still a commanding officer and Holden Yiim was duty bound.

Holden powered down his rifle and snapped to attention saluting the General. When Vaklu didn't look up at first Holden had spoken.

"General Vaklu?" he had said, still a little unsure himself that the cowering man in front of him really was the leader of the ORM. At that General Vaklu had looked up, a dumbfounded and confused look had crossed his features. Unsure of what else to do Holden followed protocol.

"First Lieutenant Yiim reporting sir!" Holden announced pitching his voice lower than normal just in case there were any Mandalorian soldiers nearby.

General Vaklu recovered his composure quickly like a man well practiced in hiding his innermost thoughts. Straightening himself to full height he acquired the regal bearing of one familiar with a life of mingling amongst a varied assortment of people, a social chameleon intent on looking good to whatever eyes were upon him. Clearing his throat the General stepped a couple feet towards the young Lieutenant.

"Ah…Lieutenant Yiim. I am most pleased to see that at least some of our troops have managed to survive this insult to the people of Onderon." Putting a hand on Holden's shoulder General Vaklu took on an air of camaraderie and familiarity, as if he were speaking with a fellow high ranking official at a gala rather than a subordinate surrounded by the rubble of his conquered city. The General's tone took on a sheepish quality, kind of the self-deprecating aspect of a man who was poking fun at himself with a fellow Pazaak player after losing a thousand credits after pulling a six card on a nineteen hand against a twenty.

"You'll have to forgive that little…moment I had back there," Vaklu continued smiling to Lieutenant Yiim, as charming as a space pirate buttering up a mark while aiming a holdout blaster from beneath the table. "You can't imagine what I've been forced to endure this last day and a half."

"Understood…sir," A sick feeling crawled into Holden's gut. He couldn't believe this man was in charge of the entire military might of the Onderonian government. No wonder the Mandalorians had been able to walk in like they owned the planet. And yet…the Chain of Command was still the life blood of a good military, and until someone told him otherwise, First Lieutenant Holden Yiim was duty bound to follow orders and respect his superiors.

"Well then Lieutenant, it looks like it is up to you and I to turn this mess around," and with that Vaklu's hand dropped away from Yiim's shoulder and the General switched back to all business mode. The straight commanding stance and the crisp tone of a General addressing a soldier slammed into place like blast doors. Instinctively Holden stood at full attention. "Very well Lieutenant, I want a full briefing on our current situation, any other soldiers who are still at liberty, and any intel you've managed to acquire on the enemy, their positions, their strengths, and their weaknesses." Back in familiar and comforting territory Holden Yiim began to lay out for the General what he knew of the bleak situation before them.


	13. Ch 7 Resistance at All Cost Part III

**Author's Note: This is part three of chapter seven.**

Holden Yiim scanned the Merchant Quarter through the gap in the debris. He watched white knuckles clutching his blaster rifle in impotent rage as a squadron of Mandalorians escorted a group of ten civilians at blasterpoint through the Quarter. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to open fire on the invaders and liberate the captives, but even with his honed reflexes he would at best be able to take out two or three of the Mandalorians before they realized what was happening and returned fire and in the process there was a large chance that the civilians would be harmed.

Then there was the fact that even if he managed to take out all the Mandalorians and free the captives without injury to them, he couldn't imagine what he would do with them. There was no way he'd be able to "baby sit" ten civilians plus the General, who was still unarmed, and also find a way to take control of this sad situation.

Slowly Holden released the death grip on his rifle and lowered it stepping away from the gap. His breath slipped from his tight lips in ragged blasts and he mentally counted to ten and then back down…and then did it again. Amazingly it didn't work.

General Vaklu watched Lieutenant Yiim as he moved away from the wall of debris and went to gaze for himself through the gap. He saw the squad and their prisoners as well. His first thought was one of confusion since he was under the impression that the Mandalorians didn't take prisoners. After all, what would they do with them? Maybe they lined them up and took practice shots. He had also heard once before that Mandalorians kept in fighting trim by forming "Combat Circles" where they arranged matches against each other. Maybe they had gotten tired of fighting each other and wanted to see what the Onderonians had.

His second train of thought involved pondering the possibility of his young companion and himself being able to take out the Mandalorian squad. True one or two of the captives might be killed in any crossfire, a couple may even be killed outright by the Mandalorians in a last ditch act of vengeance, but the survivors would look at him in awe at his bravery.

The General quickly dismissed the idea as foolishly dangerous. His main point of contention was the fact that he himself had no weapon so any attempts to liberate the captives would be made by the young Lieutenant. Vaklu himself would be forced to take cover during the firefight, and while he could claim glory for it being his command of Yiim that won the captives their freedom, it wouldn't look quite as good. There was also the possibility that the shots would alert nearby squads of Mandalorians which brought the real prospect of death closer to home then Vaklu would like. One squadron of Mandalorians might be within the realm of possibility to defeat, more than that would be stretching it more than a bit.

Suddenly Vaklu became aware that Yiim was watching him. The poor naïve man had been visibly outraged by the sight and so Vaklu tensed his own shoulders curling his hands into fists and shaking as in a rage. He clenched his teeth and furrowed his brow.

"Those beasts!" The words exploded through his clenched teeth, hard puffs of dragon's breath. "What further indignities are these great people supposed to endure while the Republic sits in their high and mighty towers looking down on us like we were peasants?"

The statement wasn't risky in the slightest. It was popular rhetoric amongst the people of Onderon from the common man to the Royal officials that the Republic was aloof and not to be trusted. It was one of the many reasons that the Onderonian government had never made an attempt to obtain full status as a member of the Republic. It wasn't that they had no desire to do business with the Republic; they just had no desire to have their culture tainted by the outside influences that would be commonplace if they were full members. Queen Talia however, most likely because of her affinity for those lightsaber bearing monks and their overly secretive order, had always tried to sway the people towards a more formal unity between Onderon and the Republic. Vaklu personally felt no need to share his status with the Generals and Admirals of the Republic military who rarely had a regal heritage to speak of.

General Vaklu took a deep breath and let it out slowly unclenching himself and turning towards Lieutenant Yiim. He visibly relaxed and a calm passed through him.

"I'm sorry my boy," he said. "I shouldn't let my passions run wild. We must view this with the logic and strategic ingenuity that are the hallmarks of the Royal Military." He nodded his head sagely.

"Worry not my good Lieutenant Yiim," he continued. "We will carry the day and all our people will be freed. But until we can muster more troops then just ourselves, I'm afraid those dear civilians must endure a little longer." Smiling he led Yiim along. They walked a few meters in silence until Vaklu realized that something was weighing on Holden's mind.

"This world's problems won't be solved by keeping your torments to yourself. Speak your mind son," Vaklu said keeping his gaze forward and trying to anticipate what this young upstart officer would say. Holden hesitated which told Vaklu that it was something that he feared the General would see as being somehow insubordinate or would appear to question a decision or order.

"Begging the General's pardon…but we've been heading away from the Palace this whole time," Holden said leaving it there as if this explained all his fears. General Vaklu didn't bite.

"Yes…yes we have. Is there a problem with that?"

"Well…sir…the way I figure…at this point the Mandalorians have claimed the Palace as their HQ- " He paused for a moment waiting to see if the General would help him out and take it from there. He didn't so Yiim continued. "-which implies that that might be where they are keeping most of their prisoners, and if nothing else, the most logical place to be holding the Queen since she was there to begin with."

"And you think it would be in our best interest to concentrate our energies there initially." It wasn't a question. Yiim didn't know how to proceed so he kept quiet and forced Vaklu to take the lead. "Listen, Lieutenant, your desires are quite admirable. I too wish it was merely a matter of storming the castle, saving the captured Queen from her tower and riding off into the sunset victorious, but we are men of war and we must be realistic." Yiim could feel the heat on his face as he flushed, partly out of embarrassment and partly out of anger at the implication of naïveté by the General.

"During your briefing you told me yourself that the Sky Ramp was not a viable entry point," Vaklu continued. "How else would you have us enter the Palace?" The question was rhetorical but it started a thought in Yiim's mind, one that escaped his lips before he had a chance to consider whether or not it would come across as offensive.

"But, you would have been in the Palace during the attack correct? That is where the Command Post is. How did you get out? What about that air shaft you came up from…where did that lead?"

For a brief moment General Vaklu's face paled and then became boiling red with rage. The moment passed and the mask fell back into place. Before Yiim could continue, Vaklu switched tracks.

"You are missing a large tactical point my boy. Even if we managed to get into the Palace, what would you have us do? You are correct, the Palace has more than likely become the enemy HQ, which means that not only is their commanding officer located there, but any Mandalorian soldiers acting as guard detail for him, and then any soldiers acting as guard detail for these potential prisoners you are concerned about…that WE are concerned about. Add to that number any other soldiers that may be coming and going on business with their commanding officers and you could be looking at a small army in and of itself. Think Yiim, what would you do if you were in the enemy's boots?"

Vaklu paused for a moment and turned away. Now that he wasn't facing the young soldier he allowed his mask to crumble a bit and express that rage and frustration at having to placate this "white knight". Turning back the mask of compassion and concern was well in place and he continued.

"I understand your frustration with this. You are a soldier, and your instincts are to commit to war against the aggression of the enemy, but you must start seeing this affair as a leader does, as I do. I would be very glad to be able to go in and rescue everyone, all our people…all the possible soldiers that are behind those Palace walls. You must understand however that we are but two men with one blaster rifle between us. If we are to have any chance of making this right, we must find more of our soldiers before they too are captured…and we must hope that we are not too late."

Yiim's head dropped as the General's words ran through his head, weighing heavy upon his mind. His instincts, his very nature still cried that this wasn't right, but what the General was saying was logical, it made perfect tactical sense and after all…wasn't that the reason he was the Chief Commander of the entire Royal Military?

"Yes sir," he began, "I guess my instincts are just fighting against logic."

For the first time, something close to a sincere emotion passed across Vaklu features and he looked at Yiim the way a father might look at a son whom he realizes will be a man someday. The sentiment however was overshadowed by his cool calculating mind. This boy would be very easy to manipulate indeed.

"Lieutenant, you are a fine soldier. I see potential in you, but if you ever hope to one day become a commanding officer, even one day take my place if that is your ultimate goal, you must learn to see the bigger picture."

"Yes sir."

"Come now, we have far too much rubble to search. Can't hang about here lamenting our limitations."

* * *

Jagi and Reeza had just searched their 1,213th pile of rubble. Having found nothing of note or consequence they moved onto pile 1,214. After the palace had been officially taken and all military craft had been officially secured by the Mandalorian ground forces, the Basilisks still providing air support had been ordered to land in various areas of the fallen city. The remaining pilots had each been given a section of the city to begin searching. They were looking for survivors, soldier or civilian. Mandalorians normally never took prisoners, not in large numbers anyway. They did however try to keep some of the native population alive to be used as slave labor or in the case of the Mandalorians occupying a planet, to continue to provide some businesses and services for the Mandalorian troops; in this respect bartenders were especially valuable. Some natives were even used to assist the Mandalorians in their further conquest of a world if it was proving either difficult to immediately subdue the enemy or in the case of multicultural worlds where governments or societies maintained solidarity and segregated themselves from each other. The standing rule however dictated that any survivor that gave too much resistance was to be put down immediately. Taking captives was one thing, but Mandalorians were not babysitters.

Already the efforts of the search teams had been immensely successful. The Onderonian survivors not only tended to offer very little resistance to capture, but seemed to make very little attempt to truly hide themselves, as if the speed with which the Mandalorians had taken the city had led to them not being quite convinced that they had been conquered. Already the Palace holding cells, where the initial captives had been taken, were starting to fill to capacity. The Mandalorians had started using structures in the Merchant Quarter that were still intact as makeshift prisons. In several instances scores of Onderonian civilians and soldiers had been killed outright merely because they were too old, too young, or too infirm to be of any use to the Mandalorians and would do nothing much but take up space. Soldiers were usually executed before civilians since their training and dedication to duty made them a potentially constant threat. Much to the disgust of the Mandalorians however, a good number of the Onderonian Royal Military officers had proven to be nothing more then sniveling, crying children begging for their lives and swearing immediate loyalty to their Mandalorian captors. Some of these were killed merely out of disdain for their cowardice.

Jagi and Reeza themselves had found very few survivors. The section they covered had been fairly close to the point in the Wall that the invading Mandalorians had breached and as such was filled mostly with large chunks of debris. This area of the city never really had many citizens in it to begin with, but the duo was beginning to see that those that had been here when the attack had occurred had found themselves flattened by their Great Wall as it had come tumbling down on their heads. They had found one survivor in the last six hours. A Wall guard had managed to not be killed by that which he guarded; unfortunately the debris that had fallen on him had crushed his entire lower half. When Jagi and Reeza had found him he was nothing more than a head, torso, and arms dragging himself along desperately pulling the mutilated remnants of his lower body behind him. Reeza had shot him almost immediately. It had been a very merciful act for a Mandalorian.

"This is beneath warriors of our stature," Reeza said for the tenth time today. "Without us we would have never taken this pathetic city so quickly. And now they have us doing the mop up work."

"You mean to say that without Commander Ordo we wouldn't have taken this city so quickly," Jagi had responded. "In any case we each do our part for the greater glory of Mandalore, or would you rather bring up your grievances with him?"

That put a stop to Reeza's whining. No Mandalorian would dare complain like that to a superior officer, and most wouldn't have done it at all for fear that any of their fellow warriors would report them. For Reeza to do it in Jagi's presence denoted a sense of closeness that Jagi did not feel for his current partner.

Jagi himself didn't mind the searching so much. There were many other duties they could have pulled, and Jagi would rather be out here searching through rubble then stuck in some dark dank building guarding captives.

Their search of pile 1,214 proved to be a scintillating as pile 1,213 and so they headed for pile 1,215. Suddenly Jagi stopped short as he heard something. It sounded like rubble shifting, which alone wasn't anything they hadn't been hearing for hours on end, but it was followed by slight grunting noises.

The sound originated from a point just past pile 1,216 where the rubble was formed out of larger chunks of wall that could possibly provide a greater level of cover. Signaling Reeza, Jagi went silent and cut into a corner that would allow him to come up on the rubble walls from an angle that would be impossible to see if someone were actually amongst the rubble. Reeza crouched behind pile 1,215 which did well to obscure him from the one point in the rubble walls from which someone would be able to emerge.


	14. Author's Announcement

**Author's Announcement:**

Due to an extreme case of writer's block and a lifestyle that lends itself very little to writing, Mandalorian Wars is being placed on hold indefinitely.

I apologize sincerely to anyone who was reading this story and for any of those who were actually enjoying it (all one of you). Hopefully when my life gets back into a better order and I find myself able to concentrate on writing something as detailed as this story, I will continue. In the meantime I may start writing short stuff just to keep myself in practice. Once again I'm sorry.

Kolya


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